As most who've read my books know I'm big on quoting song lyrics. I've done less of it (none in Thrill Ride at all) because the publisher has gotten very hinky about doing so without clearances from the song publishers. They will allow only four lines of a song to be quoted. There is a song in GEE that plays a very important role and I in fact used six lines, two of which are quoted in two different parts. I did, in fact, try to contact the publishers - I'd read that that could be a frustrating thing as they just don't care about it, and that was exactly the case. I got bounced back and forth between three different publishing entities, ending back at the first I went to - each of them saying they didn't have those rights. I mean - really? So, at that point I was done. So, last night, when I couldn't sleep, I went to the section where four lines of the song are quoted - two from the first verse, two from the bridge. And I simply deleted the quotes and paraphrased them in prose and I have to say it worked better - more personal and everything you need to get from the lyric is there, but not a direct word-for-word quote, which is completely legal. So now I'm only quoting two lines, once at the end of part one, once at the end of part two, and voila. I read it to Muse Margaret, she heartily approved, and I sent that replacement section to Grant already.
