Monday, February 28, 2011

People that Inspire : Anna Chapman

Side note : I decided to begin with a “that Inspire” series per se. Every week I'll make a post about something – a person, place, event – that can act as inspiration for a fiction writer. While this will normally be something that could or did inspire me, I'll try to keep it interesting.

Anna Chapman is a Russian spy that was in the news sometime back. She was born as Anna Vasil'yevna Kushchyenko in Russia in 1982. Around 2000, she moved to London and met Alex Chapman there, and married him soon after – thus gaining dual Russian-British citizenship.
Then about six years later, she moved to New York and created a business in Manhattan. In 2009, it became a successful business, even after some bad years prior.
Later, Chapman was arrested after an undercover FBI agent set a trap for her. She eventually confessed to being part of a Russian spy ring and she and 9 others were arrested for acting as agents for a foreign government without notifying the US Attorney General.
On 8 July, 2010, she was deported in a prisoner swap between USA and Russia.
Ever since her capture, she had become quite a celebrity. After her release, she cooperated with Zeda Inc to release an application for the iPhone called “Poker with Anna Chapman”. She also appeared on the cover of the Russian version of Maxim.
On 1 October, Chapman was hired by FundserviceBank (a Moscow bank that handles state and private sector payments) as advisor to the President of the bank.

Anna Chapman has a story with so many interesting tales that can be used to create fiction. From her work in the spy ring (it was never revealed to the public what she actually did) to her life after her deportation. Obviously I'm not talking about biographies, but rather taking a piece from her life and expanding it into another story.
If your looking for an idea for a spy novel – even if it's just a few scenes you want to add – look no further than Anna Chapman.

That's it for today. Let me know what you think.

(Most of my information plus the picture comes from Wikipedia. I can give you a link if you really need it.)

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