Jill Ammon Vanderwood is a mother and grandmother who wants to make a difference for the next generation. She visits schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, drug rehabs and church groups.
With 14 published books, Jill is the winner of the League of Utah Writer's, Writer of the Year Award for 2008. Her books have won many national and state book awards, including the National Indie Excellence Award, Teen Development Award, USA Book News: Best Books Award. She has won two silver awards through the National Mom's Choice Awards, along with three Gold Quill Awards and one Silver Quill from the League of Utah Writers.
In 2013, Jill Vanderwood published her first adult nonfiction book, Shaking Behind the Microphone: Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking. This book is an anthology with the author's own story of overcoming fear, along with those of business men, college students and speaking coaches who give pointers on public speaking, along with how they overcame fear themselves.
Her first Christmas picture book, Santa's Mysterious Boot: Finding the True Spirit of Christmas won the Dove Foundation's Family Approved Seal and the Gold Quill Award from the League of Utah Writers. Her second Christmas picture book is The Year Santa Lost His List.
Jill has written about drugs, bullying and now her new book series begins with, Off Target: The Path You Choose #1. This book tackles the issue of gun safety in realistic fiction. In many homes, minors have easy access to loaded handguns. This books shows scenarios where kids get hold of a gun and the consequences that follow. This is a book where the reader decides the outcome by their choices and there are thirteen possible endings.
The Path You Choose series continues with On the Rocks: The Path You Choose #2, and Cheers: The Path You Choose #3. These books address the issue of underage drinking. On the Rocks is written from a boys point of view, and Cheers is written from a girls point of view. They each answer the questions: What should you do if you are offered alcohol? And, should you ever get into a car with a drunk driver? The reader is the main character in these books and they have multiple endings, depending on the choices the reader makes when reading the stories.
Book #4 in the Path You Choose series is Keeping Secrets. This is a book written for girls, where the characters at a slumber party have decided to share their deepest secrets. All the girls at the party promise not to tell each other's secret. In this book secrets will reveal hard situations such as being a witness to a crime; having suicidal thoughts; a girl finds out that a mother has been cheating on her father; one girl finds clues that she may have been abducted when she was young, and another girl admits to being molested by a family member. The book also explores whether it is wrong to divulge another person's secret, even if a life is in danger. Where can a person go for help or advice when they need to face a tough choice? And, when a girl will risk getting help for a friend, even if it jeopardizes their friendship.
The Path You Choose series show realistic outcomes and the books are recommended for grades 6-9.
Jill teaches writing and marketing workshops and is available as a guest speaker for writers conferences, business groups and college courses on writing or marketing. Jill is also available for school assemblies on bullying or gun safety, and drug and alcohol abuse.
You can visit the author on the web at: www.jillvanderwood.com
