“I’ve been doing it for so long. It’s funny because I’ll have adults come in with their children, and the adult will say, you know, I don’t want to make you feel old, but you came to my school when I was, you know, his size. And now we’re reading your books together. And that to me I think it’s probably the most rewarding thing about what I do,” said author Johnathan Rand.
No matter your age, there’s a good chance you’ve either read a ‘Michigan Chillers’ book or have read one to your children. The series has been a fan favorite in Michigan since the early 2000s, and the man behind it all is Johnathan Rand.
“I had been working in radio and television for quite a while, and I fell in love with the commercial aspect, and I loved the writing and the whole creation part of that. But at the same time, I’ve always been a voracious reader. And I was reading books, and I would get these ideas and thinking, oh, that’s a good idea, somebody should write a book about that. And oh, this is their idea. Somebody should write a book about that. And then finally one day I’m like, yeah, that’s a pretty good idea. And I’m going to give that a try,” Rand said.
His first few books followed a mysterious genre with some fantasy and horror sprinkled in. But after he wrote ‘Ferocity’ about a freshwater fish in Mullet Lake that would eat people, that’s when his wheels began to really turn.
“While I was writing, that is when I got the idea for this Michigan Chillers idea. And it wouldn’t leave me alone. And I’m like it might be kind of cool. And I could write scary books like I used to read. But I could base them in different cities around the state. And I sort of brainstorming titles and just one thing led to another, and Mayhem on Mackinac Island came out and I had already started writing Terror Stalks Traverse City and just kept on from there,” said Rand.
Over 20 years later and today there are 20 published ‘Michigan Chiller’ books with number 21 on its way. But how does Rand think of such unique and chilling storylines...
“Typically what I’ll do is I’ll come up with a title first, so I’ll pick a setting, whether it’s a state or a city, and then I’ll start brainstorming an idea for a title and then, and it might be I mean, I may have to come up with six, seven, eight, and all of a sudden, boom, I’ll hit the title, you know, and I hit Dinosaurs Destroy Detroit.I’m like, oh my gosh. I mean, it was that’s like a story that just writes itself. And from there I start thinking about, okay, dinosaurs destroy Detroit. Where did these dinosaurs come from? You know, what’s the problem they’re causing? who’s the main character? Why is this a threat to the main character? I do a lot of that before I actually sit down and write my first draft,” Rand said.
Something interesting about this Michigan author is he actually goes by a few different names.
“I worked on the radio for a few years as Chris Wright, and when I went to another radio station, there was a gentleman on the radio, competing station, and his name was Wright Wilson. So, what I did is I just changed my name on air to Chris Knight, Christopher Knight. And when I started writing novels, I used that name, for my adult fiction. When I started writing something for kids, I wanted something totally different because I didn’t want parents to confuse the two. Because the material that I write for adults is for adults, and you don’t want, you know, your second grade or third grade son or daughter reading that kind of a material. And a lot of authors do that. And it just kind of took off and that’s kind of the way it goes. But by large, for the most part, like when I’m here at ChillerMania, when I’m traveling, I go by Johnathan Rand,” said Rand.
Today you can stop by the ChillerMania headquarters in Indian River, where you can buy a stack of books, souvenirs, and maybe just run into Johnathan Rand yourself.
“I really feel fortunate that I’ve been doing this for so long. A lot of authors, they ride that popular crest or that popular wave and then you know, not necessarily over, but that’s it. And I’ve been able to, you know, the series continues to grow. It continues to become popular even more and more. And to me, it’s just I mean, it’s amazing. And I’m very fortunate to be able to continue to do this,” Rand said.