Arthur Coburn
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Arthur Coburn grew up in New Jersey, went to Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, passed the Washington bar, exam spent two years in the U.S. Infantry as a first Lieutenant, and survived a three-year law career, before bailing out and landing a job for King Screen Productions, a filmmaking Division of the KING Broadcasting Company in Seattle. His first assignment there was to make a chart of all the proposals for peace in Vietnam. He progressed to directing commercials, industrials and documentaries; later to writing educational film scripts for the same company. When the division closed, he worked as a freelance writer – doing environmental impact statements, and as a freelance still photographer.
After he left the law, Arthur wrote dramatic educational film scripts, and won a local Emmy for a documentary, then moved to Hollywood, where he edited more than two dozen films, including Spiderman, A Simple Plan and The Cooler. He is a member of Sisters in Crime and MWA; and he goes to writing conferences. He has taken a screen writing class John Truby, studied with poet and novelist Jim Krusoe at Santa Monica College. He took a class with author Kris Neri in mystery writing, and two courses with novelist and short story writer Tod Goldberg at UCLA. He has written five novels: Murder in Concrete (to be published in 2024) Murder in Madrona (currently in revision); and several awaiting care and review: MaBoys Will Be Boys, Mostly (general fiction), Rough Cut (a thriller). He won the Novel Prize at the Southern California Writer’s Conference in June 2005 for Rough Cut. His short stories, Some CreatureI Care About, and Backswing, appeared in Sisters in Crime Anthologies: LAmarked for Murder and Ladies Night.
Arthur is a member of the Motion Picture Academy and the Foreign Film Committe for which he watches dozens of domestic films and upward of fifty movies from all over the world in order to vote for best foreign film.
He has traveled and worked in Morroco, Poland, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Canada and France, speaks serviceable French and Italian and watches the French and Italian channels on cable. He learned enough Polish to order tomato soup without rice and enough Swahili to order hot water for a shower when he was on a shoot in a desert encampment in Kenya. Arthur skis, road bikes, and has a pilots’ license. Plays a little classical guitar and can improvise on the piano and Hammond organ. He has a Hammond B2 and a Leslie speaker at home.
He worked as a film editor in Hollywood on more than two dozen features.
His current novel, Murder in Concrete, was picked up by The Wild Rose Press largely due to the sympathetic eye and efforts of his fabulous editor, Dianne Rich of TWFP. She saw the novel’s value from the start and guided him past various hurdles to bring it home. He is currently revising another novel and hoping to publish it in 2024.