In May 2010, the Action team sponsored a new and unique contest in their zone. Contestants were to come up for an idea for a new action novel and begin posting. The prize for the winner was creation of their novel—first year expenses paid. The winning idea has already made its presence felt on the boards. The novel is VELO, which is the story of the world of bike messengers. These are some comments made by VELO MoBster Ziyi Shang.



CLIO:
Where did the idea for your novel come from?

ZIYI:
The idea for VELO came from the desire to create a novel unlike any that has ever been on Pan. When we heard about the contest in ZONE: Action, we wanted to come up with something that was both original and also a completely new direction for us as writers. Our concern however was that it may be too obscure, after all how many Pannites are going to be into bike messengers? Our solution was to make certain that the characters have lives and emotions far beyond their jobs as messengers, cops, street people, waiters, or commuters. The characters in this novel will be from all walks of life so that this is a view of city life as a whole, not just bike messengers. The characters hopes, internal battles, emotions, and interactions with others in the cities must be focused on in our writing.

CLIO: What was your reaction to being selected as the winner of the contest?

ZIYI:
Both of us MoBsters flipped. The competition in the contest was quite good, we were not sure which way it would go. The excitement of entering a new genre (for both of us) by winning the contest was huge. Talk about a nice way to enter the Action genre! Dig it.

CLIO:
Are any of the MoBsters or current writers actual bikers?

ZIYI:
Dish is the real gear-head, his real bike that he built is his post signature(!). Dish (in RL) volunteers to build bikes for those who can't afford to buy one at a "bike collective" or "bike co-operative" in Santa Fe, NM. As for me, I love riding and have for years. Both of us work on our own bikes, & have a special thing for riding city streets as though being chased by demons.

CLIO:
Who would Velo appeal to as a reader? as a writer?

ZIYI:
I like to think that once readers realize that VELO is about life in the city, with all kinds of people -not just bike messengers- most readers could enjoy it. Pretty much anyone into Contemporary or Action genres has something to chew on in VELO, it is about modern life in a city.

CLIO:
If you could actually bike rapidly through any city in the world, which city would you pick?

ZIYI:
Rio, Beijing, or Bangkok maybe. Somewhere exotic, enormous, ancient, near water, and exciting!

CLIO:
What else would you like the readers of the PanHistorian to know about VELO!

ZIYI:
The main thing that we would like to convey is that VELO is about life in the city as a whole, not just bike messengers. We invite writers who would create any kind of character in a city. The bike messenger theme is only a "frame" around the bigger picture and gives the story a "hip" angle that is unique on Pan boards. We would love to see cops, waiters, working folk, street people, DJ's, musicians, all of it.

Drop by VELO today!