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Not only did Kevin Haggerty have some fun interviewing me recently; he also opened my eyes to an upcoming film with a unique marketing plan. The 5 Year Engagement is using transmedia, a new form of storytelling that is changing the way we absorb stories and consume culture.

Okay, full disclosure: The movie stars a certain actress named Emily Blunt who I may or may not have mentioned a couple times*. But I’m not here to blather and blush and blubber and gush. There’s plenty of time to do that later**.

The fictional couple in The 5 Year Engagement (co-starring Jason Segel) even has a wedding blog that is building towards the big event. Some of this stuff is really clever.

I’ve been wondering how this approach impacts marketing and how writers can use this kind of creativity in the 21st century. It just happens that my friend Ellie–whose superskills include cooking and being awesome–has been delving into the world of transmedia like no one I know. I asked her for some thoughts on this emerging area.

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Ellie’s thoughts:
I had lots of misconceptions about transmedia when I first learned heard about it (it’s much more than putting a wig, makeup, and heels on your book). Transmedia is not to be confused with multimedia or cross media, it’s not simply combining media. It’s creating an experience. Henry Jenkins, MIT media studies professor says, “coordinated use of storytelling across platforms can make the characters more compelling,” and Stephen Dinehart says, “ ”true” transmedia is designed in preproduction with the intent of immersion.”

Transmedia evokes all your senses, immerses you in the story. Examples:

• Sight: What if in the middle of your Kindle book a news anchor flashes on the screen and you can watch a clip of exactly what they’re seeing in the book?
• Touch: What if you could hold the exact photo that the hero found in his girlfriend’s locker?
• Taste: What if you were given the chocolate bar that the protagonist was given in his darkest moment?
• Hearing: What if when you were flicking through the e-reader pages and as you read about the hero walking across the dark room you heard footsteps? Sound effects would be an incredible addition to a book–or just as cool, a soundtrack!
• Speech: Just like in Cathy’s Book what if you could call the main character of the story?

Think how much more enjoyable so many movies would be if you knew the character(s) before you even walked into the theater! The possibilities are endless. It’s an exciting time to be an artist.

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That’s only picking the tippity top of Ellie’s fascinating brain. Be sure to check out her new post for more of the cool ways storytelling is being transformed in 2012 and beyond.

If you’re really interested in some of the other ways the literary world is getting creative then check out my post last year called Sucking Readers In.

*The restraining order has been rescinded.

**I’ve set aside April, June, and most of 2013.

I’ve been a busy boy these past few weeks, but all that hard work is soon going to pay off. The fun part’s coming when I get to tell yous what’s been in the works.

Kevin looks like a guy you can trust. Until he asks about Nick Cannon.

One of the revelations will be a complete overhaul of my web presence which brings me to the way it all got started–blogging.

Kevin Haggerty invited me to talk about my life as a writer, professor, and pop culturista. Although he may have outed me in at least one area. No, I’m not gay* in case you were wondering

There are even a couple new wrinkles for those of you who know me all too well. At the very least you can discover which Muppet I would spend the day with and how I really feel about Flo from the Progressive commercials.

So click on over to Kevin’s site The Isle of Man to read the interview sure to sweep the nation like a Hoover.

*Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Well, it’s Underworld weekend, and I am going to see the film ASAP. My friend should be here any minute. I’ve been waiting for, oh, two and half years. I feel that now is a good time to give some other ladies a bit of attention before I see Kate as the lovely death dealer she is and promptly forget about everyone else for a long time.

While I never intended to hurt anybody with so much Beckinsale adoration it’s come to my attention* that I may have been hurtful to my other three favorite actresses who round out the eduClaytion top 5, a prestigious list often whispered about during Hollywood soirees and such.

I don’t have some ranking system from 1-5 or anything because I don’t think it’s appropriate to objectify chicks and stuff. But I will say that Kate and Emily are on top. Here are my three other favorite actresses.

Diane Kruger

Diane has always brought something a little different to my list, mostly being blonde.

We first met back in 2004, the year she soared into stardom with her roles in Troy and National Treasure, two of my favorite movies of the decade. Who else could play the role of Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships? It’s funny to think about now, but I even went and saw Wicker Park for her that same year. Oh how we still laugh about that.

The so-so Copying Beethoven had to hold us over until Kruger reprised her role as Abigail Chase in National Treasure 2. Kruger was already firmly entrenched on my list before she went full smite on me with Inglourious Basterds in 2009 and then added Unknown in 2011 for good measure.

Like I say, I don’t rank women, but she comes in third.

Angelina Jolie

I’m sure the recent ascension of Emily Blunt has been especially hard on Jolie or “Ang” as I like to call her. After all, we’ve been together now for over a decade, long enough at least that the paparazzi doesn’t make waves over us anymore these days. No woman has ever stayed on my list longer than AJ.

Many gems to pick from. The Bone Collector, Tomb Raider, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and just when I thought the AJ train might be slowing down she goes and drops SALT on us. To that I say number four.

Yvonne Strahovski

We have a newcomer. It’s time for Yvonne Strahovski to take her place on my list. If you don’t know, she plays Sarah Walker in the fab TV show Chuck. The only thing missing from the Aussie’s repertoire so far has been movie roles. Then she got herself into a recent film called Killer Elite starring Jason Statham and the one and only Robert DeNiro.

Now I understand that my Australian mate Christian is going to say that he saw Yvonne first and has nationality dibs or something. Well, she’s only #5 on my list so I’m only claiming American dibs.

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Some of you might be thinking that my list is shallow and this is somehow all about looks. Not true. There’s a million beauties out there who I wouldn’t share my Skittles with. These ladies are certainly beautiful but they also can act and pick roles in multiple movies I like. And they often can kick some serious booty.

Diane Kruger was missing the gritty girl stuff until Basterds came out. Angelina’s always had it and still crushed it in Salt last year. I liked Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity and she’s the only reason to really watch Pearl Harbor, but when she went Underworld on me the universe shifted.

God help me if Emily Blunt ever goes in that direction. If she starts killing zombies or something I’m liable to go into circulatory shock.

Who is your favorite actress?

*I imagined it.

Piper Bayard and Kristen Lamb are not only candidates for office, they’re also friends and, if everything works out, will be letting me shoot guns in Texas later this year. So when I discovered that they were running for office I did what any friend of a political candidate would do–asked for a job.

So you’re reading the words of the future United States Secretary of EduClaytion. The fabulous femmes are here today to talk about our plans to take over the country and fix stuff. Let’s get to the interview.

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1.  Let’s start with the important stuff. As Secretary of Education, how many interns do I get?

Considering the precedent set in the Clintonian Era for the meaning of the word intern, we believe we should throw out that euphemism and simply call it what it is. Your harem. That way they can’t sue for sexual harassment because the job description is accurate. Our people are contacting Kate Beckinsale’s and Emily Blunt’s people even as we type. We’re sure they will volunteer for the job since they are both reputed to have crushes on you, and they’re used to the attention that will come with the job.

2.  Well, it’s one of the top issues that my college students always want to discuss, so let me put it to you. What do you think of legalizing pot?

Considering the fact that this nation is facing an obesity crisis, legalizing a drug that will have them eating ice cream from the carton with no utensils and coming up with new ways to use a Fry Daddy at 2 a.m. might be a bad idea. We will table that discussion until at least 85% of the population regains a healthy Body Mass Index.

3. You know that pop culture is very important to me and a key tool for education. So help us understand your pop culture platform by answering the following questions:

a. If you were to select a fictional character as Secretary of Defense, who would it be and why?

Wolverine. He doesn’t put up with any BS, and he’s the one who resembles Holmes most closely.

b. What would be a good movie line or two to drop in a campaign speech?

“Bad men love their mommas, too,” from 3:10 to Yuma. That would be to garner the felon vote since we are actually women who take care of our own children and bake cookies without a team to teach us how. *cough, cough, Hillary, cough, cough* We’re aware that felons are not allowed to vote, but, like our Canadian constituents, we’re encouraging them to register in Chicago.

“Because when everybody’s special, no one is,” from The Incredibles. We’ve turned into this politically correct nation of people pleasers who don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. That is not reality. If we were running for president/vice president of Fantasia, that might be different, but in the American reality, being respectful does not equate being spineless and self-deprecating. With increased globalization, our children have more competition than ever before. We need to make them stronger than ever before. Strength comes with the exercise of character and skills and the honest evaluation of those skills. Sometimes that honesty hurts. As Kristen says, excellence begins with honesty.

c. If you were to initiate a new method of torturing terrorists similar to what they did to that sicko in A Clockwork Orangeand were going to make bad people watch awful movies with their eyelids forced open, what are a couple of the worst movies ever to use?

Anything with Jane Fonda or Paris Hilton in a starring role would be a good start. Also use Waterworld, and don’t let them take any bathroom breaks.

d. There’s a lot of talk about how Mitt Romney looks presidential. But I think the American people really need to know which cartoon animal looks most presidential.

Wile E. Coyote. Especially after he’s just had something blow up in his face.

4. You ladies are running on the touching slogan of “Finally, a pair in the White House.” I’m reminded of the play Lysistrata by the ancient writer Aristophanes in which the women of the land withheld sex from their mates in order to bring about an end to war. Do you think a sex boycott will help us achieve world peace or would it really just make everyone want to kill each other more?

As married women, we are fully aware of how compliant men can be after a good dinner and some marital relations. We would use this knowledge to bring about world peace.

The fact is that there are far more men than women in many of the aggressive regions of the world (i.e. China and the Middle East). It’s the reason they are more aggressive in the first place. What else are those rutting young bucks going to do besides fight?

In addition to Piper’s plan on How Latinas Can End Jihad, we would once again turn to the wealth of resources available to us on reality TV shows. Instead of having one man choose among twenty women, giving them roses, we would give each lady a rose and offer them plane tickets to China or Dubai, where they will each have twenty men competing for their attention . . . as we think it should be. We believe that if you’re vying for the attention of a hot babe, then you don’t have time to plant IED’s.

5. In attempting to balance the budget, what do you feel about the revolutionary strategy of not spending craploads of money on useless stuff all the time?

As women who clean our own houses, we are 100% in favor of that strategy.

6. Give me a couple ideas as to how you would expect me to lead a charge to make our public education system not so, um, terrible.

First refer to the quote from The Incredibles above.

Then, we would have you dismantle the Department of Education until all that’s left is a Recruiting and Facilities Office, a Teaching Department, and a few folks to manage the Youth Exchange Program.

The billions of dollars wasted every year by the Department of Education on micromanaging America’s local school districts to everyone’s detriment would be better spent recruiting competent teachers and building more schools. The Recruiting and Facilities Office would be charged with this task.

As for the Teaching Department, how can the Department of Education call itself a Department of Education when it offers no educational materials? The Teaching Office would be responsible for developing a solid K-12 curriculum and making teaching aids for that curriculum available online to assist all students and home-schooling parents who are more interested in actually learning or teaching their children than in holding hands and singing Kumbayah in the annual Save the Whales and Build Self Esteem While Learning Politically Correct but Practically Useless Information Day.

The Youth Exchange Program would provide an outlet for all of those kids who don’t actually want to be in school and only serve to hold back the ones who do. Those wannabe thugs who don’t understand that education is a privilege would be traded to third world countries in exchange for children who dream of getting an education as they are walking five miles every day for a bucket of water.

7. Finish this joke: How many politicians does it take to screw in a…?

Generally, the last words in that question would be “light bulb,” but it’s been shown that politicians can’t screw in light bulbs. The only things they have been proven to screw are interns, men in bathrooms, prostitutes, mistresses, and the American taxpayers. [Ed. Note: Hey-o!]

We’d like to thank Clay for hosting us today. Clay is awesome, and it’s been an honor.

If you would like to host a Bayard/Lamb 2012 Campaign Blog Tour stop, please contact Piper at piperbayard@yahoo.com, and we would love to visit.

Well, I can’t take ALL of you, just a piece. Specifically, an inspirational piece.

See, I’m going to Gettysburg this weekend for a unique time of reflection and writing. I’ve wanted to go stay in a house in the middle of nowhere for a long time but never did it. I finally buckled down a couple months back and researched possible towns to stay in. I’ve been to Gettysburg before, but as soon as I thought of it I knew I had my winner.

Then I set about checking out bed and breakfast type establishments. I’ve never stayed in one of those. I found one that actually doesn’t serve breakfast. This was actually a key attraction for me. Instead, they have a stocked kitchen and you just do your own thing. EXCELLENT if you know anything about my life and sleep patterns.

It’s also major off season. This means A) The rates are cheap and B) There’s no one staying there.

I literally get the entire house to myself because the proprietors (who are very nice) stay offsite nearby.

All this to talk about inspiration. I recently asked the Twitter world what music they use to get in the creative mood. A lot of the responses were movie soundtracks. I get that. Ellie Soderstrom and her husband Mike are all about the Tron soundtrack, so I’ve been playing that one recently.

I listen to a lot of rock, and that won’t change, but I’m open to new ideas! So I’d like to know, What Music Inspires You?