Press
November Review Roundup: Terroryaki
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Terroryaki! by Jennifer K. Chung
Here’s a sampling of some of the reviews of our latest published 3DN winner, Terroryaki! by Jennifer K. Chung. Find out more about the book here!
“Terroryaki! is a playfully appetizing first bite… The writing is gritty and fast paced, exactly what you’d expect from a novel crafted in 3 days, but it’s also quite accomplished… 100% worth a read.”—SoMisguided book blog
“Terroryaki! was the winner of the 33rd Annual contest and it’s quite easy to see why: the novel is very funny and I could see Chung writing comedies of all forms and genres. It’s also quite humbling to note that this piece was written in just three days… Chung reminds us how far we might be able to push ourselves creatively and professionally… The mysterious teriyaki truck is from whence the “terror” of the title comes from and you’ll have to read this funky 3 day novel to find out how Samantha’s wedding turns out, whether or not Patrick is eating too much teriyaki sauce, or if Daisy will manage to get a stable job.”—Asian American Lit Fans book blog
“…for a vegetarian, Chung’s description of teriyaki chicken is convincing and highly sensory. You’ll wish a mysterious teriyaki food truck circled your neighbourhood, too.”—Broken Pencil magazine
Remember! To our Boston-area 3-dayers: Jennifer K. Chung will be reading at the MIT Science Fiction Society this November 18. See our Events listings in our last newsletter, and stay tuned for more upcoming readings in Washington and Oregon.
Terroryaki! in the Seattle Weekly
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
Jennifer K. Chung
The Seattle Weekly has given a nod to our upcoming latest release, Terroryaki! by Jennifer K. Chung. Reviewer Erika Hobart says the book is engaging, “as creepy as it is playful,” and “an easy read about family and food.” Read the whole review here… and if you’re in the Seattle area, make sure to come to our launch and 3DN Q&A event at the Elliott Bay Book Company this Sunday.
3-day novel writing in history
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Illustration by Jonathan Adams
In the seven (!) years we’ve run the 3-Day Novel Contest (and over the many years we watched its magic before that) we’ve had the pleasure of seeing many take on the challenge in public: the two teams of 12 who undertook the contest along with regular challenges and general harassment for reality TV; a mother-daughter team who wrote in the lobby of their local arts centre; and, most recently, Don Britt, who is breaking out of the Labour Day tradition to write 24 complete 3-day novels in a single year—the last one at a Chapters in Edmonton. So it was interesting to read in the New York Times about Georges Simenon, a Parisian author who in 1927 said he would write a novel in 72 hours while suspended in a glass cage outside the Moulin Rouge. Says the Times:
“Members of the public would be invited to choose the novel’s characters, subject matter and title, while Simenon hammered out the pages on a typewriter. A newspaper advertisement promised the result would be ‘a record novel: record speed, record endurance and, dare we add, record talent!’ It was a marketing coup. As Pierre Assouline notes in Simenon: A Biography, journalists in Paris ‘talked of nothing else.’” [Full article]
Though Simenon was offered 100,000 francs for the event—and he pocketed 25,000 of that—he never went through with it. It was a publicity stunt, and since simply talking about it achieved the desired effect, he didn’t need to follow through. Too bad for him, we say… as anyone who has truly thrown themselves into the contest will attest, it is a remarkable creative experience, whether you do it in a glass box in Paris or alone your room.
So why will you take on the challenge? For the bragging rights? For the creative juice? Or just because it’s there? Whatever your motivation, we hope you’re ready for the next round. We’re madly working at launching this year’s marathon, which will take place September 3-5, 2011. Check back near the end of May for all the registration details!
Snowmen reviewed in The Globe and Mail
Friday, March 11th, 2011
Snowmen by Mark Sedore
Snowmen, our 2010 winning novel by Mark Sedore, has received a glowing review in The Globe and Mail. Brett Alexander Savory says that Sedore “doesn’t waste words, yet brilliantly manages to convey the bitter, antagonistic relationship between brothers Charlie and Larry,” and weaves the elements of the book “easily and with precision.” On crafting such a complicated book in such a short time frame, Savory says:
“A lesser writer would have taken twice these 170 pages to tell the same story with as much resonance. Through his sparse, economical writing and keen ear for believable dialogue, Sedore unerringly pulls the reader in, making us care about the three main players in the book. We care deeply what happens to them all – even Larry, despite his vindictiveness. Or maybe because of it.”
Read the whole review here, or buy the book and find out for yourself!
Jennifer K. Chung on “the New Bacon”
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Terroryaki!
Jennifer K. Chung has told us that the inspiration for her prize-taking novel, Terroryaki! was the ubiquitous dishes of chicken teriyaki on every street in Seattle. She calls it the unspoken official dish of the city, like bagels to Montreal or pizza to New York–except “no one ever talks about it.” In a recent interview with the Bellevue Reporter, Chung says that in the Pacific Northwest, chicken teriyaki is “the new bacon.” Read the whole interview here, and look for her spooky story of sisterhood, families, interracial love and haunted take-out food in bookstores this summer.
“The deformed left foot of the literary world”
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Original 3-Dayer?
Jake Wallis Simons, an entrant in the 33rd Annual International 3-Day Novel Contest and the author of The Exiled Times of a Tibetan Jew, has written an account of his creative ordeal for the London Times. Read about his highs, his lows, and his efforts to become a 72-hour “amanuensis for the unconscious” at the Times website or, if you aren’t a paying subscriber of the Times, on Simon’s blog. He also photodocumented the many moods of 3DN, which you can find on his main site.
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