Every story is part of a larger conversation between writers, readers, and the stories that shaped us. These are the books that made us fall in love with the words and each other.
We’re Michael and Julie Ortmeier—together, *M.J. Ortmeier.*
This reading list reflects the stories and voices that have shaped how we write and think about love, trust, and redemption.
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The Stand
by Stephen King
“I guarantee that in a hundred years The Stand will be in the same class as Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Pride and Prejudice.”
It’s a bold claim that draws Jen in to hear more from a tall stranger in our first novel, Every Lie We Told. I didn’t use that same line to start my first literary conversation with Julie, but it sparked a similar result.
Stephen King is a master of character, and The Stand is proof of how deeply he understands people: heroes you love, villains you fear, and the gray spaces where most of us live.
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance,” says Charlotte Lucas. Only Elizabeth Bennet’s practical friend leaves nothing to chance. After walking wide-eyed into a union with an insufferable partner, she makes happiness—or at least contentment—a matter of her own choosing.
Jane Austen’s masterpiece is Jen’s go-to comfort read in Every Lie We Told, but like most readers, she overlooks Charlotte’s example in favor of the grand romance.
As a married couple of twenty-seven years, Michael and I have had our share of disagreements, especially about writing. With our vastly different literary styles and story preferences, creating our first novel together has been a very conscious choice. And like Charlotte, we’ve found that happiness often comes down to the decisions you make every day.
The Four WInds
by Kristin Hannah
“To be a good writer, you need to be a good reader.” It’s the best advice I’ve ever received. For me, being a good reader means exploring beyond what I naturally love. I started with Stephen King in grade school and devoured history books through high school and college. Until I began writing with Julie, I turned up my nose at domestic dramas that leaned too close to romance.
It took a few Jojo Moyes novels—and several of Kristin Hannah’s—to teach me how to write emotionally rich fiction. The Four Winds felt familiar in its historical backdrop, but Hannah’s storytelling drew me deep into the family struggles of a desperate single mother. I’ll never have the same perspective that informs Julie’s writing as a woman, but The Four Winds helped me understand how to build one: a feminine blueprint for empathy and strength.
The Beginner's Guide to Spouse Removal
by Sandra Sperling
Back in 2017, Every Lie We Told was technically finished, only it wasn’t called that yet. At the time, it went by Animal Instincts, then Higher Minds. It was a very different book, full of scenes we’ve since cut, replaced, rewritten and reimagined.
Around that same period we published a short story, Talvas the Ogre. During our extremely small-scale promotion of it, I swapped reviews with another author.
Sandra Sperling’s The Beginner’s Guide to Spouse Removal is a self-published gem about a woman whose suspicion and dark humor lead her down a series of ill-conceived murder plots.
Revisiting that review now feels a bit like finding an old draft of Animal Instincts. Rough in places, but still recognizably me.
Looking back, I can see why this book resonated with me. Beneath its dark humor and domestic absurdity is the quiet chaos that lives inside ordinary lives, the way love and frustration can coexist. The Beginner’s Guide to Spouse Removal amused me, but it also reminded me how easily affection can turn to suspicion, and how the smallest cracks in a marriage can open onto wild, unsettling places.