A last minute crisis averted!

So, as I was reviewing the final FINAL print edit of The Human, I asked my husband (who doubles as my attorney), how I needed to credit the lyrics I'd used in my book - specifically, Merle Haggard's, "Okie from Muskogee." He did some research & happened to mention "I hope you aren't using more than one or two lines - more than that and you need permission from the artist." WUT? I was using 6... Ok, so in hind site I really shouldn't have been surprised, but as I said above, I was reviewing the FINAL print edit of my book when I discovered this. To say that I panicked would be an understatement - I had to get revisions to my editor that night if we were going to get everything done in time for our print deadline. Y'all, those lyrics were a huge part of two major scenes in my book. Perhaps with a few days to brew and think about how to rewrite them without the lyrics I could have done it, but to try to do it RIGHT THEN (at the end of a very long day I might add), my brain was fried, and I was in no state to write. I'll admit it, I cried. I threw a pillow at the wall and screamed. Then I went into my bedroom and stared at my draft trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do. I thought it was the end of the world. I can be a bit dramatic at times... 5 minutes later Ron came to the rescue. "Hey baby?" "Yeah?" "Are you dead set on those lyrics?" "No. I only used them because my dad used to sing them when I was a kid." "Well, if you use a song that's out of copyright you don't need permission." *SUDDEN HOPE* "Like?..." "Well, anything where the writer's been dead 70 years or more I think. Or any traditional songs like 'Danny boy'." So, I went with the traditional Irish folk tune "Whiskey in the Jar" (sometimes known as "Kilgary Mountain"). While it didn't have the same childhood sentimental value for me that "Okie from Muskogee" did, my husband has been singing it around the house for the past 11 years, and it was t [...]

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