And, in an effort to be a good citizen, I spoke at the Rotary Club in Madison, (where they sang God Bless America after lunch). The topic was how to recruit and retain young people. My speaker's bureau liked the video so much that they put a clip of it on their site, here.

Finally, thanks to Steven Grant's suggestion, you can buy Brazen Careerist t-shirts. Workplace fashion will never be the same…

I said, "Because it's my job. My boss wants me to."

I said this to my son even though I don't actually have a boss. But how can I tell him that I am generating this trip on my own? It's too awful to admit. Still, I am blindsided:

He says, "Doesn't your boss know you love us?"

I tell myself to ignore it. I tell myself there are nine million stories of kids saying the most heart wrenching thing they can say to their mom as she leaves for the office.

I get to the airport and I tell myself everything is fine while I bite all my nails. Then I wait at the gate while I sip diet Coke hoping I didn't eat so many Ho-Hos with the kids that I don't fit into my mommy's-working-now clothes. I am at the wrong gate. I read the seat number instead of the gate. I make the flight with seconds to spare.

I try to calm myself down on the plane. I tell myself that there is no way to support the family as a writer if I'm not going to promote my book. I tell myself my kids are lucky that I'm with them every day from 1pm to 8pm. I tell myself I'm lucky to be making a living as a writer.

I get to Chicago to switch planes. I tell myself that I am in better shape and that I don't have to worry about falling apart on local television because I am not falling apart now. I have a sandwich as a sign of body confidence. Or at least waist confidence; it's all about the button.

Read the rest here

Inkwood Books
216 South Armenia Avenue
Tampa, FL 33609-3310
(813) 253-2638

I have actually already gone to one city, as a pre-publication test run: Cleveland. And I met up with a bunch of people including Cheezhead blogger Joel Cheesman, who recorded an interview that you can listen to here.

I'm looking forward to meeting a lot more people in person as the tour continues.

June 4, Atlanta
A Cappella Books
484-C Moreland Ave NE.
Atlanta, GA 30307
404-681-5128

June 7, New York City
Tequila Jack's
1668 Third Ave
Between East 93rd and 94th
(212) 426-1416

June 11, Boston
Location TBD

June 18, Tampa
Inkwood Books
216 South Armenia Avenue
Tampa, FL 33609-3310
(813) 253-2638

June 21, San Francisco
Location TBD

Here's the home site: http://www.penelopetrunk.com/.

And here are the latest reviews:

Bob Sutton at Bob Sutton 
This book made me think, it made me squirm, and it also made realize that too many of my assumptions about how to get a job — or in my case, how to advise Stanford students who are looking for jobs — are wrong or half-wrong. 

Richard Florida at Creativity Exchange
A terrific guide to managing your career in today's horizontal labor market. I devoured it in an afternoon.

Brendon Connelly at Slacker Manager 
There's a lot to love in this book. It's an easy and fun read-especially when you see yourself in the pages.

David Maister at davidmaister.com
She writes so well that even if you're not in her target audience (Generation X or Y), or currently in the market for career advice, she's nevertheless worth making a daily habit.

Curt Rosengren at Occupational Adventure
She's whip smart, no-nonsense, and always has great ideas to share.

Steven Rothberg at CollegeRecruiter.com
Penelope Trunk is one of this generation's greatest career writers.

Maura Welch at Boston.com 
A hot new book that lays down the new rules for career success in her always smart, no-nonsense manner. It's a great read and I highly recommend it.

David Rothacker at Rothacker Reviews 
As a Boomer manager, I feel as if Brazen Careerist is my own personal undercover spy, infiltrating the Gen X and Y'ers' world.

Jeri Dansky Jeri's Organizing and Decluttering News 
I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Debra Owen at 8 hours & a lunch
Whether you're facing a quarter-life crisis, or a mid-life one, this is worth a read.

Buy it there now. Or buy the book in local book stores starting on May 25.

Here is tip #25 from the book: Don't Use Adverbs

If you want people to pay attention to what you have to say, write short. This is true in all of life, but most true at work. Most of the writing we do at work is in the format of an email, proposal or presentation – all documents that your audience wants to get through quickly. The faster and more concisely you get to your point, the more likely your reader will stick with you and understand your message. "If today the president got up and addressed the nation in 270 words, it'd be a top news story. People will pay more attention because you're so brief," writes Janice Obuchowski in the Harvard Management Update.

We sound most authentic when we talk, and verbally, short, simple sentence construction comes naturally to us. When we write, authenticity gets buried under poor word choice. For example, people who use complicated words are seen as not as smart as people who write with a more basic vocabulary. "It's important to point out that this research is not about problems with using long words but about using long words needlessly," says Daniel Oppenheimer, professor of psychology at Princeton University.

Writing short is not easy. Take the 270-word Gettysburg Address, for example. "Lincoln didn't just suddenly master elegant language. He wrote wonderful, down to earth language that was very concrete. But he rigorously trained himself to do that," says Bryan Garner, editor of the Dictionary of Modern American Usage.

Here are some self-editing tricks for writing shorter:

1. Write lists.
People love reading lists. They are faster and easier to read than unformatted writing, and they are more fun. If you can't list your ideas then you aren't organized enough to send them to someone else.

2. Think on your own time.
Most of us think while we write. But people don't want to read your thinking process; they want to see the final result. Find your main point in each paragraph and delete everything else. If someone is dying to know your logic, they'll ask. 

3. Keep paragraphs short.
Your idea gets lost in a paragraph that's more than four or five lines. Two lines is the best length if you really need your reader to digest each word.

4. Write like you talk.
Each of us has the gift of rhythm when it comes to sentences, which includes a natural economy of language. But you must practice writing in order to transfer your verbal gifts to the page. Start by avoiding words you never say. For example, you would never say "in conclusion" when you are speaking to someone so don't use it when you write.

5. Delete.
When you're finished, you're not finished: cut 10% of the words. I do this with every column I write. Sometimes, in fact, I realize that I can cut 25% of the words, and then my word count isn't high enough to be a column and I have to think of more things to say. Luckily, you don't have to write for publication, so you can celebrate if you cut more than 10%. Note: It is cheating to do this step before you really think you're done.

6. Avoid telltale signs of a rube.
Passive voice. Almost no one ever speaks this way. And on top of that, when you write it you give away that you are unclear about who is doing what because the nature of the passive voice is to obscure the person taking the action. Check yourself: search for all instances of "by" in your document. If you have a noun directly following "by" then it's probably passive voice. Change it.

7. Avoid adjectives and adverbs.
The fastest way to a point is to let the facts speak for themselves. Adjectives and adverbs are your interpretation of the facts. If you present the right facts, you won't need to throw in your interpretation.  For example, you can say, "Susie's project is going slowly." Or you can say, "Susie's project is behind schedule." If you use the first sentence, you'll have to use the second sentence, too, but the second sentence encompasses the first.  So as you cut your adjectives and adverbs, you might even be able to cut all the sentences that contain them.

… I just checked to see if I have modifiers in this section. I do. But I think I use them well. You will think this, too, about your own modifiers, when you go back over your writing. But I have an editor, and you don't, and I usually use a modifier to be funny, and you do not need to be funny in professional emails. So get rid of your adverbs and adjectives, really.

Myth #9: Create the shiny brand of you!  
There is no magic formula to having a great career except to be you. Really you. Know who you are and have the humility to understand that self-knowledge is a never-ending journey. Figure out how to do what you love, and you'll be great at it. Offer your true, good-natured self to other people and you'll have a great network. Those who stand out as leaders have a notable authenticity that enables them to make genuinely meaningful connections with a wide range of people. Authenticity is a tool for changing the world by doing good.

Go to Guy Kawasaki's blog, How to Change the World, for the whole list.