Hi, everyone. I’m off on Christmas vacation. My first post of the new year will be on 11th January.
Feel free to post to an Open Floor.
For a bit of entertainment, here’s a great link to a list of the Top Ten private space vehicles.
In the mean time, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope Santa brings you all a flying car.
All the best,
Chris Mc
Mad Genius Club 
Here’s a question for all of my MGC friends. Let’s say you wrote a story. Let’s also say that it was not really based on a song, but about a guy who thought that he was receiving a message from a song ala Charles Manson. Let’s also say the song had been used by another author in one of his books, albeit in a very different way. Would there be any steps you needed to take before submitting said story for publication? Or do you just list something footnote style and move on with your life. And no, the song is not public domain at the moment.
I’d start by going over the the Passive Voice blog (thepassivevoice.com) and looking at the legal advice for writers article he excerpted earlier this week. A lot of it, and of the PV discussion, centers on using lyrics. Short version is, if the song is not in public domain, you need to get permission from the composer/agency in order to use the lyrics. Several commenters recommended writing your own lyrics that capture the flavor of the actual song and using those instead. In this day and age, I’d worry more about that than about stepping on the toes of another author, if the other writer uses the material in a different way and/or is in a different genre. My $.12 (two cents, adjusted for inflation).