Detroit writer visits, speaks to Havre on book tour

Elizabeth Pilar, an acclaimed short story writer from Detroit, will be at the Havre-Hill County Library tonight at 7 p.m. to read excerpts from her new book, "A Blue Moon in China," and speak to people about her experiences traveling through China.

"My book is a memoir," Pilar said of her novel. "It's about the two months I traveled through China in 1988."

The book is a look back into China's recent pre-tourism history and tells the tale of a 21-year-old with $400 to fund two months' worth of experience in the country.

"I had no idea what I was doing," she said.

Pilar traveled the far east by herself once the college she was going to at the time raised its tuition and she decided to take a trip instead. She has kept a journal since she was quite young, and "A Blue Moon in China" is pulled from those pages filled with real-life experiences.

"China at that time had just really kind of opened to travelers to be able to amble about the country," Pilar said, adding that many of the places she went to are now changed by tourism. " ... It's a look back into 1988 China, it's a look back into the world before the World Wide Web, before we were all hooked up by the Internet, by cellphones, by social media, and it's a look at how events just kind of happened. That you didn't know what was going to happen next because there's no information in front of you to warn you about what's about to happen or where you're going or what it's about."

The meet and greet with the author at the library today is one day out of an Amtrak Empire Builder tour Pilar has embarked on to promote "A Blue Moon in China." Photos of her trip will accompany the stories she tells and copies of the book will be available for purchase.