Five stars for The Reprise of Rooster Rockstar by Betty LaVelle

                                

The Reprise of Rooster Rockstar   

Available here

   Betty Lavelle’s new book, The Reprise of Rooster Rockstar, reaches out and captures the world around us in stunning prose and glorious photographs and artwork. Every emotion is given a nod, from the joy of rare everlasting love, to the deepest heartfelt sorrow of great loss. The selections of unique and relevant photos and paintings accompanying the poetry are spot on, and many are of her own creation as her talent carries over from pen to brush. Her poems move smoothly from thought provoking, to memory inducing, to comforting and a sense of joy.  

A true master of this genre of literature, Betty Lavelle has the beautiful ability to says so much with so few words.

 The Reprise of Rooster Rockstar  

Available here

                               

                         Also available by Betty LaVelle

       

The Demise of Rooster Rockstar: Selected Poetry, Photography, and Art

Available here

A spirited collection of poetry, photography, and artwork that chronicles the author's deeply-felt reflections on the themes of life, love, togetherness, and loss. Sometimes enigmatic, often humorous, the eclectic offerings in this little book are filled with generosity, warmth, humanity... and hard-won resilience. Encounters with beauty and tragedy, visits to foreign homelands, musings on the virtues of popcorn, even a eulogy to a noble cockerel are stitched together into a truly unique quilt-work of appreciation: sometimes it is the hidden joy within, and not the rooster, that causes the sun to rise! Featuring poems, photographs, and artwork by Betty LaVelle, poems by James LaVelle, and photographs by Katarina Orel. 

Butterflies, Scarabs, and Secrets 

available here

Butterflies, Scarabs and Secrets tells the almost mythical story of Clayton Dougherty, a talented young traveler who interpreted the world's otherness—the bombardment of the strange we so often take for granted—in hidden works of art. With intrigue, humor and a new assignment of meanings, Dougherty quietly built a world that he could understand. At his death, his mother discovered her beloved son's artistic accomplishments tucked in the pages of his 2,000 books. Journey with him, through his mother's eyes, in this biography of a secret artist. Through drawings, collages and art boxes—lovingly gathered—experience the marvelous mysterious works of Clayton Blair Dougherty.

Betty LaVelle is a photographer, poet, and the author of "Butterflies, Scarabs and Secrets," an autobiography of Clayton Blair Dougherty and his artwork. This book was chosen to become a reference book as part of The Western History Collection at the Denver Public Library. The collection is recognized as one of the most significant of Western Americana in the country and reflects all phases of development of the trans-Mississippi West. Betty is also the author of "The Demise of Rooster Rockstar," a spirited collection of her poetry, art, and photography. She is presently working on a new book, "Don’t Tell Mary."