Friday Feature: @Cross

Time and Friday Features wait for no one, even in a week as exciting as this. It’s Friday, so that means that we get to meet and greet another Proser, finding out what makes them tick. This week sees a Proser that many of you, we are sure, will know. It’s @Cross

P: What is your given name and your Proser username?

C: You may know me around Prose as Cross (previously Vincent_Cross). It's a username I've used for the past decade, give or take, based on a character I had once created, who has kinda evolved into being my alter ego. My birthname is George.

P: Where do you live?

C: I live on Greece's biggest island, Crete. Home of the Minotaur, olive oil, beautiful beaches, and, as everywhere else in Greece, unemployment. I've lived here since I was 3 years old, when my parents left impoverished Georgia (the country, not the state) behind, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in hopes of a better future. And that's how irony works.

P: What is your occupation?

C: I'm a postgraduate nurse, currently banging my head at the dwindling job market.

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

C: I first started writing at primary school, short poems that didn't really have any fancy meaning, aside from basic rhyming. Writing has always been an integral part of my life. Commentary on the happenings around me, externalization of thoughts, emotions, ideas... Growing up as an only child, with few friends, whenever there was nobody around to talk to, I would turn to the pages of the nearest notebook and write down pretty much anything. It was around puberty that I first started writing from other points of view than my own, and that practice has really helped shape my character and my understanding of the world.

P: What value does reading add to both your personal and professional life?

C: I'll admit, I'm not a massive bookworm. I've read a few dozen books, but that's it, really. I think it has something to do with ego, and a lack of patience that one needs to have in order to navigate through heaps of mediocre books in order to find something extraordinary. The classics, now that's where one can't go wrong. But anyway, to answer the question, I mostly turn to reading when I want to silence my own thoughts and get lost in someone else's. Suffice to say, I used to read more -a lot more-, but these days, whenever I pick up a book, this weird defense mechanism kicks in, and suddenly, my attention span scatters in a million places. So, reading: amazing whenever it happens, which is sadly not as often as I would like.

P: Can you describe your current literary ventures and what can we look forward to in future posts?

C: I don't think I have any specific ventures to speak of. I've partook in a few contests (never won any of them, but then again, winning was never the intention), and there are a few stories I have lying around for years, which I still convince myself I will finish someday. I have tried getting published in the past, but since I mainly write in English, my attempts at getting the attention of any Greek publisher have been unsuccessful. I may end up self-publishing something, someday, but that's a long way off. As for my future posts... Hell, I have no idea! I write them as they come.

P: What do you love about TheProse.com?

C: The positivity and support that everyone here seems to have in abundance. I had never shared my writes before. Prose changed that -changed me- for the better.

P: Is there one book that you would recommend everybody should read before they die?

C: The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli.

P: Do you have an unsung hero who got you into reading and/or writing?

C: My mother. She also happens to be the unsung hero that got me into appreciating classical rock music.

P: Describe yourself in three words!

C: Insatiable; resolute; outsider.

P: Is there one quote, from a writer or otherwise, that sums you up?

C: “Men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Every one sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.” Machiavelli. Again.

P: Favourite music to write and/or read to?

C: I tend to write better in absolute silence, and the same goes to reading. Music, for me, is another form of expression, and to my experience, whenever I commit to one form of expression, I commit fully; mixing the two is nearly always detrimental to both.

P: You climb out of a time machine into a dystopian future with no books. What do you tell them?

C: “I appreciate the fact that you're trying to save paper, but please tell me you have kept digital copies? Otherwise, you are worse than Orwell's worst nightmares.”

P: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you/your work/social media accounts?

C: If everything goes according to plan, this time next year I will be posting my works from the UK.

If you don’t already, follow @Cross and interact with him, like his words and just do what makes Prose so special. If you want to feature (yes, nominate yourself), or you know anyone that would (or you’d like them to), then please let us know at paul@theprose.com