As editor-in-chief of Her View From Home, Moore reads 200-300 short stories submitted every month for potential inclusion on the website that is for and about mothers.

Moore is a Minot mother of five who joined Her View From Home about six years ago and recently was involved in the small company’s venture into publishing its first book, “So God Made a Mother.”

“I really love what I do because I like being able to just tell stories and hear interesting stories,” Moore said.

“I think stories are so powerful because that’s how we all relate,” she added. “That’s really what connects people in the human experience.”

Celebrating the release of their book in Omaha, Neb., last month are Leslie Means, founder and owner of Her View From Home; Carolyn Moore, editor-in-chief; and Casey Huff, creative director.

At a time in America when thinking differently tends to raise fences, Her View From Home looks to open people up to other’s experiences and to learn from them, she said.

Her View From Home was founded by Leslie Means of Nebraska about 11 years ago. The submission-based website accepts articles on marriage, motherhood, faith, grief and friendship.

Moore was freelancing in the communications field when she began submitting articles to Her View From Home and eventually was asked to join the staff. Moore said she and Means found a connection through their similar backgrounds in the broadcasting industry. Means is a former TV anchor/host and Moore also has been a news reporter/anchor in Fargo and Minot as well as doing some writing, including serving as editor of the college newspaper while attending the University of Mary.

In addition to Means and Moore, the staff at Her View From Home includes a graphic artist.

Moore related that Means was ready to shut down the website one night in 2017 after struggling unsuccessfully to gain a footing in the internet market. Prompted the next morning by what she felt was God’s whisper to keep going, she held on. A short time later, a woman submitted an essay for the website about a friend impacted by postpartum depression who had just taken her own life. There were 9 million website views that month.

Carolyn Moore holds the youngest of her five children, 1-year-old Dashiell, and the book she helped create through her work with Her View From Home.

“It changed everything. I changed the trajectory of the site because it did make national media,” Moore said. A couple of months later, Her View From Home heard from a woman who recognized herself in the story and, because of that, sought help for her own postpartum depression.

“There’s always just this bigger purpose, I think, that we feel behind the site, and it’s for reasons like that – for women who will say this story needs to be out there,” Moore said. “So there’s a lot of purpose behind it. We always say it’s bigger than us.”

Moore said in her time with Her View From Home, the company’s Facebook following has increased from about 40,000 to around 1.5 million followers, indicating that the stories are resonating with women.

“From the time I started we talked about doing a book – kind of an anthology or a compilation of stories – just because we have so many stories,” Moore said. When the COVID-19 pandemic disruptions occurred in 2020, they decided it was time to take action.

“I bought a copy of the ‘Guide to Literary Agents,'” said Moore, who recalled poring over the book while on a 32-hour family road trip to Florida with four children in tow. Her View From Home signed with a New York literary agency in February 2021.

The next step was to collect the stories.

Working with past submitters to the website, Her View From Home received more than 500 submissions for the book, which Moore and Means read, looking for diverse voices. In the end, 89 essays were selected and writers compensated..

Moore, whose children now are ages 1 to 14, edited the book around the birth of her youngest child and her husband’s major surgery. She also wrote the book’s concluding essay. Mears wrote pieces that mark the start of each of the book’s 10 sections, each of which contain several short essays. 

Six publishing houses sought the book’s contract, which went to Tyndale House Publishers in Chicago. “So God Made a Mother” released April 18 and by early May had reached No. 9 on the Wall Street Journal list for nonfiction and No. 8 on the Publishers Weekly nonfiction list. It also has been flying off shelves nationally and in Minot’s bookstores.

“There’s such a powerful connection that comes through good storytelling, and I think that’s really what it’s about. It’s doing well, I think, because people crave that,” Moore said. “We have believed in this project for so long, and we know the power of the stories and we know how authentic it is and how real it is. Even now we need that so much just to connect with each other.

“It’s a lot of varied stories. It’s not all happiness,” she added. “We have a lot of hard pieces. In fact, probably our largest category that I get submissions in is in miscarriage and grief and losing parents and things like that. So that’s important to us, too, that we have a space for people to  connect there and tell those stories.”

Faith is often a part of the stories, but that inclusion is left up to the writer.

“I appreciate a story where someone is really showing you themselves,” Moore said. “I think it’s brave when people do that, too. We tell our writers that, too - that it’s really a brave thing that they put these words out there and publish and put their names next to it.”

Moore values her role at Her View From Home in giving people a voice.

“I’ve sort of come to view it as a little bit of an unconventional mission field of mine,” she said. “I see the value and just the ministry in being able to meet people where they are and say ‘Thank you for sharing that with me’ or ‘Thank you for telling me your story.’ I think that’s kind of holy in a way – to have someone trust you. We tell people on the site that we are just honored to be able to be the place where they can share their stories and their worlds and that they trust us with that -  with some of the hardest things that they probably don’t go around talking about all the time.

“That to me is probably the most rewarding thing about what I do as an editor. Yes, I’m fixing commas and things like that, but I’m really connecting with people,” she said. “I’m very lucky to have landed where I am and doing what I’m doing.”