Blatant marketing, with good reason.

I don't often use this post for blatant marketing. My hope is to entertain, or make you think - if only for a moment. If anyone is inspired to follow the links and buy a book, well that's a bonus.

So please bear with me, just this once. You'll see why.

You can't have missed the news about recent earthquakes. This time last year is was Nepal. Recently there have been two huge quakes in Japan, followed by a third in Ecuador. Each time there are pictures of collapsed buildings, exhausted men and women digging in the rubble in the hope of pulling one person out alive. Anyone who survives under the stones and the dust for longer than a day or so is celebrated.

Do we, from the comfort of our sofas, grow immune to such disasters? Do we see so many that we forget that these are people just like us, with children and dreams. People who work and play and squabble over what to watch on the telly. People who want nothing more than family around them, food to eat - and a roof over their heads.

It's easy to be overwhelmed by such thinking. The extent of the obvious need is so huge that it's easier to turn away. After all, we can't do anything about it, can we?

We can't stop the earth quaking. We can't fly across the world and pull people from the rubble. We can't rebuild a city, or even a small town.

But all the profits, every single penny, from After the Earthquake is going towards rebuilding a home in a village in Nepal. We've already raised enough money to rebuild one house - so there is one family who no longer live among the rubble. Now for a second - this time for an older couple who spent the monsoon in a tent. (Can you bear to imagine that?)

So you see, we can do something. It's a small thing, but if we all do it, then we can make a huge difference.

(And if you want to read my other stuff, you can find it at www.jocarroll.co.uk