AUTHOR’S NOTES

(Arminda B. Roddy, author of Maya's Mountain: Where God Stands Up 

with her first copy of her published book)  

  The journey of writing Maya’s Mountain: Where God Stands Up has been one that I can 
safely say started from the time I learned to read and write. Since I was a young child, 
I have always been fascinated by the way an author could create an entire world, a visionary 
universe, with just their words! Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that my 
grandmother, “Gramma Peggy”, and my mother Nancy had a HUGE hand in fostering 
my love of the literary universe. They have told me my entire life that reading is the 
key to all knowledge, and my hope is that this novel will help pass some kind of 
knowledge on to my readers, whether that is self-knowledge, spiritual knowledge, or 
some unique combination of all of it.

Even more, my journey with this novel has run parallel with my spiritual journey, namely, 
my walk with God. It’s taken me right around five years to finally bring this story to fruition, 
and an interesting point to note is that many of Maya’s memories and moments are largely 
reflective, if not exactly reflective, of memories and moments of my own. Writing this has 
been a wonderful and enriching way for me to reflect on my own spiritual journey, from 
accepting Jesus into my heart in my childhood church at fourteen, all the way up to the point 
I am at now, writing with the intention of sharing God’s glorious gospel with as many people 
as I can. Through all of Maya’s highs, lows, doubts, understandings, and overall reflections, 
I hope that those reading will be able to see that God is, quite literally, in the pages for all of 
this thing we call life and beyond.

Words are a powerful, powerful tool that we have been blessed with. I am so thankful for the 
opportunity that God has given me to use words to talk about His gospel. I am eternally 
grateful to my husband, ALL of my family, and my friends from every walk of my life for all 
of the support that they have offered me in this process and for providing the larger part of the 
inspiration for what I hope will be a riveting story to all who decide to dive into it. And on 
that note, I wish you happy reading and thank you for investing your interest in my story! 

Enjoy! 

Arminda B. Roddy