Books published by Orest Stocco

Few writers have impacted writing like Ernest Hemingway, and My Writing Life is a personal account of the impact he had upon the author from the day he discovered him in high school. Not only does My Writing Life offer a unique insight into the art of writing, but into the complicated life of Ernest "Papa" Hemingway, and it dares to offer a psycho/literary perspective on Hemingway's complex personality and legendary suicide. A memoir like no other, My Writing Life sates the longing in one's soul that literature cannot satisfy, which Orest Stocco illustrates with the adventurous life and writing of Ernest "Papa" Hemingway.

A voice of sanity for these crazy times, Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys offers an audacious perspective that addresses the inevitable dilemmas of the human condition with uncanny wisdom and passionate understanding.  Unlocking the mysteries of Emily Dickinson and Rumi, each poem shines a new ray of light into the darkest corners of the human soul.

I was going on twenty-four and living in Annecy, France when it happened: a soul moment so charged with energy that it changed the dynamic of my life...

""Despite my Roman Catholic faith growing up, when I encountered the ""doctrine uttered in secret"" I felt an immediate attraction to it; and although it threw my Christian faith into confusion, I pursued the doctrine of reincarnation. And the more I read on reincarnation, the more convinced I was that when we die we come back to live life over again; and my concern then became-why do we come back to live life over again?""Chapter 13: MY REGRESSION TO THE BODY OF GOD

Not unlike Neale Donald Walsch's conversations with God, the author of THE MAN OF GOD WALKS ALONE has a series of dialogues with Ascended Master St. Padre Pio. Their talks touch on the daily activities of the author's life, and in the process he receives wisdom from Heaven.

Monday, March 19, 2012. I had my first dream last night that indicates I am reliving my same life over again in a parallel world. In my dream, a woman that I know said to me, "There are two of you." I am astounded by her comment, because I seem to know that there are two of me in my dream also; that is, I have the knowledge that I have lived my same life before, and I say to her, just to make certain that she is sure of what she said: "Are there two of anybody else?' And she replies, "No; I only see two of you."

Not unlike Neale Donald Walsch's conversations with God, the author of "In the Shade of the Maple Tree" has a series of dialogues with Ascended Master St. Padre Pio. Their talks touch on the daily activities of the author's life, and in the process he receives wisdom from Heaven.

""Stories bear the truth of the human condition, and the human condition is the story of our becoming; but not until we solve the riddle of our becoming will literature resolve the issue of the human condition. This makes literature endlessly fascinating, because every writer speaks to their place in the enan-tiodromiac process of man's becoming, which Jung called "individuation," and in their stories they stake out the geography of man's soul-whether it be the happy country of one's being, the unhappy country of one's non-being, or that miserable place of being stuck between two countries-the no-man's land of one's soul.""Chapter 18: The Dust on a Butterfly's Wings

"Open your heart to God's love and you will get all the respite you need. It is not that difficult. Whenever I was down in the dumps I prayed. You don't pray because it is not in you to beg God for help; but you can open your heart to God and let God's love pour into you. That is the way of the open heart. Here's what you do: think of all the times you loved, and let your heart fill with those memories. Think of one time, one moment of love, and just let the love fill your heart again; that's the exercise. It is your prayer. Don't ask for anything more, because God's love is all there is. I am always with you, my dear friend."Chapter 35: Padre Pio's Promise

THE GOLDEN SEED is a magical blend of two realities. Jordan Hansen turns forty and has a mid-life crisis. He has an affair and feels rejuvenated. He divorces his wife Maria and marries the other woman, but one year into his marriage he suffers the guilt of his betrayal and spirals into depression. He drinks to ease the pain, but alcohol destroys his second marriage. He leaves his wife to start fresh in another province, but one day he meets a strange old man who turns his world upside down. Discarnate voices, out-of-body experiences, parallel worlds, morphed images, and mystical people play havoc with his mind; but little does Jordan know that the strange old man is a Gnostic Master who has come into his life to extend his Sacred Contract and give him a second chance to redeem himself with Maria and his children. Jordan tosses a coin and let's God decide what he should do...

The saddest people in the world are those that have been brought as far as life can take them in the evolution of their individuality, because the longing in their soul for wholeness and singleness of self cannot be satisfied by life and one does not know what to do to fill the hollow in their soul and be the person they are destined to be, like my high school hero Ernest Hemingway. No matter how much life he experienced, he never seemed to get enough of it; like marlin fishing in the Gulf Stream, which so tested his manhood that he had to prove himself over, and over, and over again, and in the process winning trophies and adulation that fed his massive ego which in turn demanded more attention, a never-ending cycle that drove the great author to despair and suicide.

""We all do stupid things, and we hate ourselves for doing them; that's why we repress the memories of our stupidities. But they don't go away just because we have repressed them. They cling together in our unconscious and form an archetypal matrix of psychic energy that can compel us to behave stupidly whenever an opportunity arises, and quite often when we least expect it. This is why I was inspired to write this new book of spiritual musings. I wanted to make conscious this unconscious tendency that we have for doing stupid things; but little did I expect my musings to take me where they did...""From the Epilogue

The "I" is the big mystery of life. The "I" is a miraculous unit of reflective self-consciousness that is aware of its own individuality and separateness from life; and although every "I" is made of the same individuated consciousness of life, each "I", in the words of the poet John Keats, possesses "a bliss peculiar to each one by individual existence." The "I" is who we are. It is our distinct individual core identity. Like snowflakes, we are all different but the same; but how do we become different? Better still, how do we even become a distinct, separate "I"?

A long time ago, no one knows quite when, a young man with an adventurous spirit but very innocent to the ways of the world was seduced by Old Whore Life. She became pregnant and gave birth to a male child, whom she named Murphy. Born of innocence and deception, Murphy was not a normal child. Cursed with his mother's insatiable desire to deceive the world and blessed with his father's guileless nature, Old Whore Life weaned her favorite child for his destined purpose to test the spirit of man with what over time came to be known as "Murphy's Law," and so it came to pass that regardless of what we do in life if anything can go wrong, it will...

Letters to Padre Pio is a personal record of an epistolary journey in the spiritual company of the Ascended Master Saint Padre Pio. It is a continuation of the author's relationship with Saint Padre Pio which became the basis of his novel Healing with Padre Pio.

Grace Kendal, a married ex nun from St. John's Newfoundland, has outgrown her Roman Catholic faith and suffers the anguish of her calling for more spiritual freedom; but Providence arranges for her to meet Oriano Fellicci, a housepainter and creative writer from St. Jude, Ontario who expands her faith and offers her the freedom she longs for; but will she step into the undiscovered country of her own soul and liberate herself? Tea with Grace is an astonishing story of synchronicity and platonic love that will expand your horizons and leave you in a state of mystical wonder.A TRAGIC STORY OF LOVE AND DENIAL