also not quite what I had in mind...
"As to your hoping permissions aren't required because someone might say no, first of all, this strikes me as fairly irresponsible on your part. Just because it might inconvenience you, you don't want to ask for permission to use something that doesn't belong to you."
Hmmm...I guess I gave the impression that I simply wanted to steal from people. My bad for not making myself clearer. Being responsible would mean asking about what's legal before pursuing publication of said work, which I did today, in this forum. I honestly didn't know the rules and asked about them here. If enough folks on this board wrote, "I use horoscopes from the newspapers in my books all the time, and as long as you properly cite the authors/sources, you won't get sued," then I would have assumed the practice was legal, ethical and "good-to-go" as they say...Sorry for the bad first impression, folks; it wasn't my intention to appear thief-like...
"If your book depends so heavily on other people's material that without it the book might not "have a chance of being published", then perhaps you need to rework the entire thing so that it's a bit more original."
I thought about that as a back-up plan. But the co-author isn't too thrilled about going back and drastically revising her half of the book (she's a good friend but only has a passing interest in writing...I was impressed she wrote as much as she did, but going back just isn't an option) so I'm kind of stuck between the rock and the hard place. If I can't legally use the works without permission and I fail to acquire their permission, this manuscript will simply be exiled to the nearest not-so-full junk drawer. If it's to be, it will be, and if not, well, there are always other stories to tell.
Thanks for the advice, y'all