Hi, my dear!

I must start with an apology because you may get this letter several times over...if your addy is in my Gina Pounds aol address book, for instance, you may or may not have received an email containing the following text.

Since I was tired of downloading aol files regarding my webpages the other night, I had the bright idea of sending group emails about this shabby aol deal and my new book out to everyone in my address book.

I went by alphabet, so as not to have too many recipients for one send - out. Well, after an hour spent on this rather tedious task, I had it all done and sat back - - quite tired, but looking forward to a few replies at least.

Guess what!

Within half an hour I had so many mailer daemon returns, my eyes said, "Enough!"

I looked at a couple of these dread things and saw my emails had not been delivered...and marked SPAM - YES.

Whooooph...

So that taught me a lesson. It also just made me more determined to get my news out there...like it or not, I am very stubborn. I also don't take it kindly to be termed a spammer....oh geesh! :))) I hardly ever sent out even these AD newsletters and certainly not group emails from aol.

Hotmail seems to be the most hostile...almost all of those addressed to hotmail flunked the spam test.

Well, I hope you won't get annoyed with me...if you're stillf ond of me, please just call me Spammie...heheh

Here's my letter - - and note: I was so overloaded I forgot to give at least one promo paragraph about my really good detective story, Wild Violets.

Hi, my dear email correspondent!

my apologies for sending you an email as part of a group mailing...I'm using my aol address book to send out my news...you may not know me and I may not remember you because aol auto - populates my address book.

If we have corresponded via several of my email addresses, you may get this letter many times over...sorry about that, too. Not my normal style.

This is a sad moment for me: Aol will quit its hometown webpage program by the end of the month. So I'll lose all of the pages I have built since 1998.

I'll also lose my part in many webrings and my own webring will lose its homepage and my own pages.

If you have linked to one of my pages using the rdippy.com URL, not all is lost as I'll be able to redirect that address. However, if you linked directly to an aol URL, that link will be void. :((((

I do so appreciate your help over the years!

And if you ever browsed through my webpages, I thank you for your interest!

If you never have taken the time to do so, you now have a few days to visit yet. I had much fun building those many sites, not just to promote my historical novels, but just to have a creative outlet.

One of my favorite pages to build was http://members.aol.com/ThndrnLtng/EntryCloud.html/
I had a midi of Santana's 'Smooth' on that page..which was great. It got corrupted, however, by someone or something and now a weird unknown midi plays instead...not worth redoing. :(

The prettiest Christmas page was linked into the http://hometown.aol.com/thndrnitng/Intro.html site..that's the site where you find good links to many of my pages.

The contest for readers which I ran around Christmastime was a lot of fun..this year I won't be able to hold one as planned even though I have a new book to promote... (sigh)

You can read about that following the links on my Gina's Catalogue home page..the link is in my signature line.

I have no clue yet where to get a normal webpage that's inexpensive and easy to build...redirecting to my place at www.authorsden.com/reginapounds and to a site I'll built at authornation.com will be an interim solution.

Now to the good news: This year I finally was able to sneak in the production of my contemporary detective novel, The Any Agency: Wild Violets!

It has been called sensational and great, in the tradition of the 'old masters of suspense.' Well, I'm pleased. :)

You may order it from amazon.com...a search for Wild Violets gets you there fastest. Or, you may wish to order at the desk of your bookstore...or call the publisher, Infinity, direct...info is on my Gina homepage.

I'm happy to have that book in hand...this year - - like last year - - has been extremely difficult on a personal level, but you can help keep the writer Gina going...by just spreading the word about Wild Violets, please.

Aol's email system is unreliable, but you can reach me via the authorsden message board if you wish and/or if you don't hear back from me within a reasonable time. I'll be super busy saving my aol web files till the end of the month, but I'll be glad to hear from you.

Oh, and should you kindly consider using Violets as a gift, you might want to contact me for a signed copy...I have a few.

Thanks so much!
best regards,
Gina
Just released: Wild Violets
http://www.rdippy.com/
P.S. While this is sent as a group email, your addy is safe with me.