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Excerpt from "How to Ruin a Pearl"--A Novel


    It didn’t seem to sound the way she thought it would.  It was a very whining sound as she pulled the bow across the strings, as she thought she’d seen it done before.  She paused as she felt she was being watched.

    “Margaret what are you doing there?” Asked Uncle Kellen.

    Margaret startled, “Oh, I want to play.”

    Uncle Kellen asks, “It takes a lot more than making it whine.  Let me show you, Margaret.”

    Margaret hands Uncle Kellen the violin and then the bow.  She watches as he appears to tune the strings. And he plays Czardas Hungarian Folk Song.   Margaret is mesmorized.  Now she knows she will play the violin, hopefully with the elegance of how the strings can dance through her fingers.


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