Last year, while most of us eagerly slacked off during Labor Day weekend, Jennifer Chung hid in her guest bedroom to churn out her entry in the International 3-Day Novel Contest. “I only left to go to Starbucks!” she says. Still, the Bellevue software engineer was stunned when she won the contest. She shouldn’t be. Loosely inspired by her personal life, Terroryaki! (Arsenal Pulp Press, $14.95) is an engaging tale about Samantha, a Taiwanese-American girl who works part-time at a teriyaki restaurant and blogs about her favorite Seattle teriyaki joints. This dismays her strict parents, who’d rather she follow in her lawyer sister’s footsteps—only without getting engaged to a white guy. Sam faces an even bigger problem when she stumbles across a cursed teriyaki takeout truck. Terroryaki! is as creepy as it is playful, and an easy read about family and food. Surprisingly, Chung says her greatest challenge wasn’t the writing marathon, but accurately describing the food—because, she notes, “I’m a vegetarian.” ERIKA HOBART

Sun., Aug. 28, 2 p.m., 2011