On hot summer day in the town of Circumstance, my brother Levi and I were supposed to move an antique mirror for the Sheppards, owners of the antique store. There was a strange man in a maroon colored suit in the store that day. I tried not to eavesdrop while Mr. Sheppard was doing one of those Rune readings for the stranger; my mom would say that was rude.It was rumored the old mirror was magic, yet Levi and I promised to be careful. Mrs. Sheppard said it was going into her mirror collection. “We watched helplessly as the cracking continued until the frame gave up and let the mirror pieces go that it had so bravely held together. Levi and I exchanged a look of horror. We didn't want to say it out loud, but we knew we were in for Seven Years Bad Luck, Starting Today!”

A newlywed couple is cursed with an unsexy fate in this “fun, lively read [with] lots of humour and lots of laughs” (The French Village Diaries). Sex isn’t everything. At least, that’s what rock singer Casey and drummer Alex tell themselves when they are strangely unable to consummate their marriage on their wedding night. Or the following night. Or, in fact, any night. They simply can’t do it anymore, and it’s not for lack of trying. Ever more inventive and increasingly desperate when tried-and-tested strategies fail them, Casey and Alex experiment with every trick of the trade, with accessories and other aids—even sex therapy. But it’s as though they’ve been cursed. Will their love and friendship prove strong enough to withstand the trials and tribulations of a sexless marriage? Join Casey and Alex on a wild ride of self-discovery, love, laughter, and tears, where friends old and new produce a twist in the tale that will leave you breathless. “Hysterical . . . A true romantic comedy, and one for your summer reading list!” —Chick Lit Plus

Spring finds more than peace and solitude when she flees to her grandparent's estate home in Maine. Her decaying marriage has consumed her thoughts, leaving her feeling vulnerable with little self esteem. She discovers the old antique mirror stored in the creepy shed, which reveals that it holds more than just her simple reflection. The visions of an old woman in the mirror frighten her, and she wrongfully believes it could have something to do with her deceased grandmother's psychic ability coming back to haunt her. Her grandmother warned her that her own vainness would be her downfall; her words meant little, until she is morphed into another dimension. Smashing the mirror in a rage, takes the superstition seven years bad luck to whole new level. The mirror world is a cold, harsh place, and having a sentence there, will be a living hell, unless she can find another way to escape. Her only hope is her twin sister. Her twin sister has marriage woes of own, which lead to her murdering her husband in a very unique way. She does manage to save her sister from the mirror world, but the cost is exchanging places with her. Every mirror is a two way mirror to this secret world, and they observe us and wait for us. The guardian of the mirror world Alvaro is a strong presence, and it's hard to decide if he is friend or foe. The mirror world makes one reflect their inner beauty, and takes you to hidden deep dark crystal caverns, where ones outward appearance has little value.

One wedding. One curse? Disaster ever after... A seven-years-bad-sex curse? Surely not! Yet something went wrong when rock singer Casey and drummer Alex got married on that beautiful yacht anchored off St Tropez in the south of France. Something went badly wrong. For even on their wedding night, the young couple discovers a complete and somewhat surprising inability to make love. Muddling through their honeymoon with a string of thin excuses for their predicament, the lovers defer finding a solution (and panicking) until the return to their home in London. After all, they married for life and to make rock music, not for the love of sex. Right? But when they resume life as normal in London, all hell breaks loose. Increasingly frantic in their quest for release, the unhappy newlyweds embark on a string of hilarious and occasionally harmful antics that drives them, their band, and an assortment of random strangers to the brink of despair. But it ain't over 'til it's over or, in this case... it ain't over 'til the newlyweds sing.

"Every Seven Years" and "I Don't Remember" My grandmother always said life changes every seven years, "Sometimes for better, Sometimes for worse". In the book "Every Seven Years" a young American draft dodger meets the "love of his life" at a Canadian lake. The far-reaching arm of the United States War with Vietnam makes it necessary for the young draft dodger to disappear without saying good-bye. As the lives of these two young lovers move forward separately, will my grandmother's saying prove to be true? And will they meet again? In the book "I Don't Remember" a wealthy young woman starts a new life after she wakes with amnesia caused by an accident. Was it just an accident or something more sinister, a possible kidnapping attempt? Time will tell. As she is constructing her new life and moving forward, she meets someone and falls "head over heels" in love with him. Then suddenly he is gone. The circumstances of his disappearance are beyond belief. Will she wait hoping for his return or will a new love step in to claim her heart? In each book there is a disappearance. In each book there is a love found, then lost. Each book has a new love who steps into the picture. Each book has a reunion. In each book there is a difficult choice to be made. In each book: "One true love wins out in the end". (Love and mystery for ladies 12 years to 112 years.)

Seven years ago, Trick’s mother made a deal with a witch. In exchange for saving his little brother’s life, the witch would turn Trick into a cat and he’d become her familiar. Now, the witch is dead and Trick is human again. And he hates it. Denneka isn’t looking forward to eighth grade. Of course, since she has no friends and gets bullied at school, she never looks forward to any new school year. But this time it’s different. This year, there’s a very strange new boy who keeps hanging around her for some reason. He’s super cute, and even though he doesn’t talk much, he seems to like her. But he also chases birds and sits in boxes and talks about seeing their missing teacher in a grave. But then Trick disappears, and a black kitten shows up on Denneka’s doorstep. She knows she should find its owner, but it reminds her of her missing maybe-friend, so she takes it in. As time passes with no sign of Trick, she fears she’ll never see him again—until she wakes up one morning to find him naked in her bed, claiming to have been there all along and confused about why she’s upset. It turns out there are other witches in the world, and some of them are pure trickster.

When twenty-six year old Kathleen Cooper realizes that she forfeited her dreams and aspirations of becoming a lawyer after a brash decision to run off and marry the insanely charming Aidan Cooper, she decides to regain what she lost over the course of their seven-year relationship and start fresh. With a renewed sense of hope and determination, she moves to a different city, lands a new job, and meets the handsome Benjamin Chase in a serendipitous way. But even with all of these changes and hopes of gaining a new life, Kathleen is still not happy with the person she sees in the mirror staring back at her. She is an insomniac. She generally has bad luck in just about everything she attempts. She's clumsy, and even if Prince Charming fell into her lap, she would likely push him in the opposite direction, for fear of getting hurt or worse, hurting someone else. This time she can't blame any of these things on her bad luck or her destructive marriage. This time, it's not her heart that's in danger. This time, she has much more to lose and everything to gain. Will she realize her mistakes in time to repair the damage? Will she be able to reverse her shattered self-image and discover true happiness? Will she ever find her way back to the person she was before seven years of bad luck?

Classic comedy routines and individual gags have been around for many hundreds of years, probably thousands; the best of these ribticklers make their merry way through theater, circus, film and television. The challenge to comedians has always been to adapt familiar material in a way that emphasizes their personal style and outlook. The many routines and gags cited in this illustrated history are lovingly deconstructed to show how they have been shaped to suit different eras and performers. These tried and true laugh-provokers are indestructible. Through all the remakes, revivals, recycles and revamps, they have survived robustly to the present day. As these timeless comedy gems are traced to their beginnings and followed through the years, readers are taken on a mirthful journey from Keystone to Zombieland.