A LADY LAWYER IN THE OLD WEST--INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR CATE SIMON'S ANNA HARRISON

Photo of Old West courtesy of RedRock Photography of Wichita

Today we sit down for a chat with Anna Harrison, the heroine of author Cate Simon’s Courting Anna.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I was practicing law in my small town in (1880s) Montana, training my clerk Jeremy, and starting to think about the future for my ward Sarah. I’d loved and lost when I was much younger, and I was all right with that. Until my author had me cross paths with Jeremiah Brown . . . .

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

My independence – I’ve always done what’s right for me, which is not necessarily true for women in my day.

What do you like least about yourself?

I’m hopelessly undomesticated, which in my time period is very unusual for a woman. I was never much good at cooking or sewing. When my mother tried to teach me to cook, as a child, I nearly set the kitchen on fire more than once. After that, she agreed it was better that I hang around daddy’s law office instead.

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you? Well, there’s this Internet thing. We’re still getting the hang of the telegraph where I’m from. Inside my story, probably the coincidence that Sarah and I went on holiday to Colorado Springs at the same time that Jeremiah and his partner Ed showed up in town.

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?  

Mostly she understands me, but sometimes it’s a little intrusive, the things she asks. Back in my day, there were things you didn’t talk about so openly.

What is your greatest fear?

Losing my independence. In my day, a married woman lost her legal status – everything belonged to her husband, she couldn’t enter into contracts, etc.

What makes you happy?  

Reading – especially when a new shipment of books comes in from my bookseller back East. Riding and hiking in the mountains; Sarah and I like to explore, together. Battling Nick in the courtroom. Getting to know Jeremiah Brown.

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I wish my parents had still been alive when my story began – I miss them. (They died in a train derailment three or four years beforehand.)

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

Nick Powell, my best enemy. He’s one of my dearest friends, but we’re always trying to outdo each other, in court, in negotiations, in life. We’re evenly matched, which makes it enjoyable, but sometimes it’s tiring.

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?  

I’m quite happy being me.

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

Cate was a lawyer, like I am – but she preferred storytelling and went back to graduate school, so she could teach college, instead. We like a lot of the same books – George Eliot, Wilkie Collins, Crime and Punishment, and so on.  I don’t understand why she disliked being a lawyer so much, but then, she keeps telling me that I really should learn to cook. Her website is at www.catesimon.com – she’s got pictures of her family back in my era, and Western scenery by a really talented photographer friend. And she’s adding stories to her blog about early women lawyers like me – the first in the U.S. was in 1869!

What's next for you?  

Living happily ever after. Right now Cate is working on a book about another woman, a Western lawyer very much like me – but who heads East, to the very different world of Gilded Age New York City, who finds herself trying to help a family friend who’s been accused of murder. After all, as a lawyer, she knows what to look for!

Courting Anna

Beautiful Anna Harrison has carved out her life as a small-town lawyer. Brilliantly intelligent and fiercely independent, a female attorney of her caliber is quite the oddity in 1880s Montana territory! After losing her fiancé years before, she guards her heart as carefully as her treasured independence – until outlaw Jeremiah Brown comes into her life. Throwing caution to the wind is against Anna’s nature – but what can one night with her handsome client hurt? He’s leaving town the next day . . . .

Jeremiah Brown has been working hard to come clean and dodge bounty hunters who know him as notorious outlaw Tommy Slade until the statute of limitations runs out on his past crimes. Though he’s irresistibly drawn to Anna, he’s well aware that sleeping with his beautiful attorney is a deadly game to play, even if it’s only “just” one night. Still, how can he resist?

But Fate has different plans for them, and they find themselves falling in love against their better judgment. How can they have a future with a price still on Jeremiah’s head? And how can Anna find happiness as a wife without losing her own hard-won independence? When circumstances spiral out of their control, they both discover that love is the most important thing of all.

In the courtroom, in the wilderness, and in the face of scandal, Jeremiah’s biggest challenge is Courting Anna.

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