This Is Not a Drill and Other Warnings

By: Nick Botic

Narrated by: Derek Austin

A once-in-a-lifetime interview opportunity offers a journalist a horrifying glimpse at what awaits the world...

A mysterious group showcases their plans for the next step of human evolution...

An elderly woman paints innumerable portraits of the same house from every angle, and the same occupant that dwells within it...

From Nick Botic, the acclaimed author of Daughter's Drawings, This Is Not a Drill and Other Warnings is a collection of sixteen dispatches from the edge—where landscapes twist, memory falters, and reality buckles under pressure.

These aren't warnings meant to be heeded. They're just what happens next.

©2025 Nick Botic (P)2025 Fright Night Audio

Critic reviews

“Nick Botic hates you. How do I know? Because he puts you into his stories and leaves you there, unprotected, unsafe; he makes you feel the heat of the desert and the terror of an impossible choice, makes you hear the unnerving chime of a hotel elevator, the dire, repeated warnings of a newscaster emanating from a television in a suburban home. He makes you feel the anxiety and the terror of a voice you would normally trust, but that just might mean a horrific death. Nick Botic hates you and, moreover, he's trapped you in his story. You can't leave until you've read the very last word. And soon you find that you don't want to.” —Matthew M. Bartlett, author of Gateways to Abomination and Where Night Cowers

“A hideous amalgamation of weird people, places, and things. Nick’s creations are born of nightmares, and slither deep into the brainstem to linger until death.” —Felix Blackwell, author of The Church Beneath the Roots

“Nick’s stories, like all our most lingering nightmares, are at once surreal yet savagely visceral. He draws you into his characters’ minds and invites you to taste their dread, their pain, their madness.” —Brandon Trenz, co-author of Michigan Basement (with Thomas Ligotti)

Creepy Anthology

This Is Not A Drill: and Other Warnings is a horror anthology with 16 solid stories. I remember reading the story “The Rest Stop” in another anthology and falling in love with it. I was excited to read other tales by Nick Botic. If you want short stories that are genuinely creepy, keep you guessing, and will leave you filled with dread, I highly suggest picking up this anthology.
The narrator, Derek Austin, does an AMAZING job. Derek is starting to become one of my favorite narrators. If you haven’t heard him narrate yet, you’re missing out. I love how Derek lulls you into a sense of false security in “Guided Mediation.”
Many of the stories in this anthology have that cosmic horror feel to them. I loved that a lot of the stories left me wanting more. I wanted to know what happened next to some of these poor, unfortunate characters. From “Lillian and Her Paintings of a House” to “The Stretching Party”, this anthology will give you chills. Some stories may even have you peeking over your shoulder. If you asked me to pick a favorite story, it would be a toss-up between “A Conversation in a Field” and “This Is Not a Drill.” Which story will keep you up at night?
Thank you to Fright Night Audio for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Awesome collection!

I can’t say enough good things about this collection!

Each story has a different sort of vibe but the creepy factor is turned all the way up.

Derek Austin knocked it out of the park with the narration! Guided Meditation still lives rent free in my head.

My favorite stories were Guided Meditation, The Secret Gods of Rural America, and This Is Not A Drill but all of them were great!