Prompt: Five books McKay didn't get published and one he did
Rodney McKay's Book Report
~::~
Rodney always wanted to write a book about astrophysics. He particularly wanted to write a book about astrophysics and the Stargate; the definitive edition on wormhole travel, inter-dimensional space, and maybe even a chapter on time travel. But he didn't write it because Samantha Carter wrote it first.
Rodney always wanted to write a book about how to date a woman, but after a half a page, he slammed down the lid of his laptop and went to find John Sheppard for a beer.
Rodney always wanted to write a cook book. After all he liked to eat and did so as often as he could. He was even willing to include a chapter on how to cook with lemons—as a joke, of course... but he didn't have a sense of humor that stretched that far. Besides, he was worried it would be a best-seller and he had too many demands on his time already.
Rodney always wanted to write a book about the people he'd served with in Atlantis, people like Carson Beckett and Elizabeth Wier. As he sat in front of the keyboard, he traveled back in memory and the screen in front of him remained blank. All the words were there-in his head and in his heart—but he wasn't ready yet to share them with the rest of the world.
Rodney always wanted to write a book about the artistry of Beethoven's piano concertos. The amazing music haunted him. But images of his long-dead piano teacher haunted him more and he never found the nerve.
Rodney always wanted to write a book for his niece Madison, so he did. He wrote a picture book called, "A Mathematical Wizard's Garden." The wizard lived in a magic castle that moved itself through space once the characters in the story solved the puzzles hidden on the walls and in the flowers. The walls got higher and higher, the flowers got prettier and prettier, and the problems got harder and harder. Most normal kids would have trouble with that, but not the niece of Rodney McKay. If the story's main characters looked like Jeannie and Madison and the wise old magician looked like Rodney himself, well, that was just coincidence. He liked the book so much he paid to have it published out of his own pocket—all ten copies of it: one for him, one for Madison, one for Jeannie, one for Radek, one for Teyla, one for Ronan, one for Jennifer, one for John, one for Sam, and one for Atlantis itself—although he didn't know how to deliver it.
~::~