Shortly after publication, it began to accelerate. Misplaced keys turned into misplaced cars and would eventually become misplaced homes. The publisher was less than thrilled when he missed his flight to begin the signing tour. They began to catch on when he started asking fans about the plot of the book he was signing.
Sometime between Best Seller and Bargain Book, he realized that he was experiencing the last greatest moment in his life. The pain of this realization was mercifully short as the disease devoured first his memories, then his personality and finally his body. Only the book survived.
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I like this story quite a bit, which is why I want to see more active verbs in it. Currently, many of them have qualifiers: began to, would eventually become, started asking, etc. For example, I wonder if something like "Shortly after publication, it ACCELERATED." would serve the piece. Choosing active verbs lets you increase their impact and decrease wordiness.
It's unclear that publisher and the author are separate persons in the missing the flight sentence. And of course, I will always want to know who "they" are! :)