April 23rd will mark a momentous occasion for Kyle Bentley, a former Stittsville resident. Kyle’s debut novel, The Nightmare Schematic, is releasing Friday. The novel, which Kyle hopes will serve as the first in a series, takes place in a modern setting and falls into the genres of science-fiction, horror, and fantasy.
A description of The Nightmare Schematic: “Since he was a child, Connor has dreamt of horrible machines. Years of nightmares have left the young inventor clinging desperately to his unravelling sanity, but that isn’t the worst part; that would be the gnawing certainty he could build those mechanical terrors, no matter how impossible they might seem. Everything changes when his dreams reveal a new machine, a miraculous device that brings hope instead of terror, and could save humanity from the many threats facing our modern world. Connor sets to work immediately, desperate to know once and for all if the visions haunting him are merely bad dreams or something far more sinister. As the machine takes shape and forces Connor to question everything he thought he knew, unseen forces begin circling. Even with the help of his closest friends, can Connor escape the burgeoning threat? What’s more, will he ever unravel the mystery of the nightmare schematic?”
The idea for this story stemmed from a world Kyle and his friends have been discussing over the last ten years, at least. Kyle wanted to begin writing characters within this world, and the story evolved from that. He estimates that he has been writing this story for about three years now. Much of the writing process involved figuring out how best to introduce the world in which The Nightmare Schematic is set. Kyle plans to expand the series into more novels and eventually a game. He already has an idea of where he wants the series to go and is eager to further explore the story and the world from multiple perspectives.
The story is very grounded not only in science-fiction, but in psychological realism as well. The Nightmare Schematic is a story which sees how a normal person reacts to being thrown into a strange situation. Kyle believes that a lot of the novel’s themes are very applicable now. In a lot of ways, the story is about isolation and going through things on your own, such as facing your demons while trying to make the world better. Above all, Kyle hopes that readers will see parts of themselves in these characters.
Kyle is both excited and anxious about the release of his debut novel. He has been hard at work on self-publishing the novel through his own company, Faceless Publishing. The Nightmare Schematic will be available on Amazon, through Print-on-Demand. Faceless Publishing will also have its own webstore through which the book can be purchased, and Kyle continues to explore other avenues for getting his book into the hands of eager readers.
To allow people to join in his celebration and to ask questions about The Nightmare Schematic, Kyle is hosting a digital launch party on Friday, April 23rd at 6:00 p.m. EST on his twitch channel.
Be sure to get yourselves a copy of The Nightmare Schematic by Kyle Bentley, available April 23, 2021.