In spite of having to juggle a prolific writing career, running his own youth camp and keeping on top of various speaking engagements across the country, author Jonathan Rand still carves out some time in his busy schedule to travel the globe.

After spending a good chunk of his summer hiking through the desolate tundra of Siberia, the Michigan writer is now making frequent trips to and from the continent of Africa. In fact, the man made a quick visit the region the morning before his talk Friday evening at Dowagiac Middle School.

What is the secret to Rand’s abilities to crisscross oceans and nations with such ease?

The fact he is an avid reader.

By flipping through the pages of Neil Peart’s novel “The Masked Rider,” Rand described how the writer’s depictions of a journey biking through West Africa allowed him, the reader, to vicariously experience the sights, sounds and smells of an unfamiliar land — all without having to hop on a plane or catch a train.

“Reading is not a thing that you do,” Rand said to the audience of students and parents inside the middle school auditorium that evening. “It is a place that you go. It is something that each one of you personally experience.”

The young adult author shared some stories from his career as well offered some advice to encourage children to embrace the “magic” of reading and writing during his talk that evening at the school. Rand was invited to visit the Dowagiac community by organizers with The Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, which sponsored the one-day event.

Rand, a native of Pontiac, Michigan, can personally attest to the doors that a love of reading and writing can open for people. As a student in college, the man was able to land a job making commercials for a local radio station due to the fact he knew how to write well, a skill he honed writing short stories for fun as a child, he said.

For years afterwards, Rand continued to work in radio advertising, writing commercials that, instead of relying of the same tried and true tactics that cause most listeners to simply change the dial, stood out and made people take notice, he said.

“I did anything I could to make my commercials different,” Rand said. “Be they funny, weird, goofy, creepy, silly, I made my commercials stories.”

Beginning in the mid 1990s, Rand took his expertise at crafting stories from the airwaves to the bound pages. Initially writing mystery novels aimed at adults, the man eventually transitioned into creating horror stories for younger audiences through his popular “Michigan Chillers” series, with each book set in a different city in his home state, Rand said.

“The first book that I wrote was ‘Mayhem on Mackinac Island,’” Rand said. “The whole process was so much fun, so enjoyable. It was such an exciting experience that I started writing ‘Terror Stalks Traverse City’ right away.”

Today, Rand has self-published nearly 100 different titles, and runs his own bookstore, Chillermania! In Indian River, Michigan, as well as his own summer camp, Author Quest, located in Wolverine. He continues to write every day, extensively outlining his story ideas so that he can write the actual book in a week or less, Rand said.

He also spends his time visiting students like those in Dowagiac, sharing his love of writing with children. To him, a mere pencil becomes a magic wand when in the hands of a writer, allowing someone, regardless of age, to create a unique work that can take the reader on a journey or adventure.

“Find somewhere that is kind of quiet, put lead to a piece of paper and starting thinking about a story that you can write, a story that can be your very own,” Rand said.