The Parlor’s First Annual Creative Connection was a success by every measure. Thank you to our fabulous host The Salem Athenæum and to the incredible crowd who packed the room and participated in the conversation with our special guest Hannah Tinti.

For those of you who missed it, here’s an excerpt of the conversation:

Adam Pieroni: What advice do have for those of us here today who might want to devote ourselves to writing, start a magazine, or pursue a career in publishing?

Hannah Tinti: Like with anything in life, it’s not one big break that you get, it’s not like life changes in one day. It’s a series of very small steps… Once you have the goal for yourself … for me it was writing, this is what I decided to do … I said, “I’m going to throw my eggs in this basket and I’m going to do what I do best.” But at the same time I had a job, I was working in an office, trying to write at night and on the weekends, trying to pay my rent, trying to live my life, do my laundry, pay my taxes. And I basically decided what I would do is, once every day, I would try to do something that would further me towards my goal. And that … wouldn’t necessarily be submitting my work to a magazine or something like that. It would be reading a good short story, or even reading a magazine article about a writer, or it could be something really small:  giving myself 10 minutes to sit and try to write a good sentence…. Or I’d go to a reading at a bookstore. And of course I wouldn’t make it every day. I’m sure there were many days I didn’t do something, but if you keep pushing yourself with these small steps toward a goal, you eventually reach it. And the most important thing–because often times, particularly with beginning writers, I think they feel that what they’re doing isn’t worthwhile–is time: finding ways to give yourself time, to make time, to write. Treat it like it’s something important. Value what you do. You do have something important to say.