Riff-ing on Hollywood

Russ Tamblyn, who was nominated for an Oscar for portraying Norman Page in the movie Peyton Place before playing Riff in West Side Story, has just published a memoir called Dancing on the Edge: A Journey of Living, Loving, and Tumbling Through Hollywood. Tamblyn, who grew up as a dancer and tumbling gymnast before hitting filmdom, later starred as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby in David Lynch’s popular TV series Twin Peaks, although most of the last few decades have been spent in choreography and working as a fine artist in Topanga Canyon. Now at age 90, Tamblyn is touring with the book, including a February 27 date at Chaucer’s where he’ll talk about Dancing on the Edge with his co-author Sarah Tomlinson. Visit www.chaucersbooks.com.

Write On 

New Year’s Day took a depressing turn, thanks to a mysterious email announcing that “due to unforeseen circumstances” there won’t be a Santa Barbara Writers Conference in 2025. Five weeks later comes word that several SBWC workshop leaders are instead working to put together a long weekend of writing workshops to be called the Santa Barbara Summer Writers Fest, slated for the same time frame of June 19-22. The Fest will be held at different locations all around Santa Barbara with sessions on poetry, fiction, memoir, marketing, sci-fi, magical realism and more, and opportunities for writers to gather, network, hangout with fellow writers, eat and drink. Still no explanation on the hiatus of the official conference, but registration opens for the substitute event on March 8.