Courtesy Charleston Daily Mail

(March 17, 2009) While growing up on Charleston's West Side, Eliot Parker spent a lot of time with his father at Watt Powell Park, taking in the baseball games of the Wheelers and Alley Cats.

That experience, combined with Parker's love for writing and his desire to honor his father, who passed away last summer, has led to his first book, "The Prospect."
The book is a fictional tale of a baseball player, Shane Triplet, who was drafted to play minor league ball in a depressed logging town, Sheaville, W.Va.

As the story unfolds, Triplet learns his family has a dark connection to the town. And of course, there's a girl involved.
Parker has dedicated the book to his father, Brent, the owner of Cunningham-Parker Funeral Home, who died last July after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Parker said if not for his father's interest in baseball, "The Prospect" might never have been written.

"He loved baseball so much, he got me interested in it," Parker said. "I wanted to do something that would honor him."

After years of watching local minor league teams and visits to major league stadiums, the idea for the book was born. Parker, an assistant professor of English at the Marshall Community and Technical College, said work on the book took more than three years, including research, writing and editing.

Research alone took a year, Parker said.

He spent time at the state Division of Culture and History, looking through microfilm and archives of small towns in West Virginia to learn what they looked like and how they were set up.

He also talked to people from the Division of Natural Resources about the logging industry.

Parker, who also works as a sports broadcaster with WRVC in Huntington and ISP Sports Network, spent time listening to minor league baseball broadcasts and talking to local broadcasters.

Andy Barts, Jim Tocco and Larry McKay gave Parker insight on traveling with the team, player personalities and issues the players encounter.

"A lot of the conversations Shane has with teammates, the manager with the players, they're based on research," Parker said.

"There's a realistic element to it."

The writing process took about a year and a half, off and on, as Parker wrote between his classes, calling games and other activities.

"I've always wanted to be a writer," Parker said.

"Finding time to do it was a struggle."

Linda Vinson, an associate professor of communications and the curriculum coordinator for communications and humanities at Marshall's technical college, said she was surprised to hear Parker had published a book.

"He didn't even mention it until he got an offer from a publishing company to publish it," Vinson said.

"To have a published author on staff really just brings some authenticity to his abilities as a writer. Because he's such a good writer, he's willing to teach other people to write."

Parker said his own teachers in Charleston helped him realize he had a talent for writing and he hoped to pass that on to his students.

"English was the only subject in school I really liked, the only subject I felt I excelled in," Parker said.

An AP English teacher at Capital High School, Gene Petry, really pushed Parker.

"It was one of the hardest classes I've ever taken, but it really taught me about writing, making it stronger and better," Parker said.
"He inspired me and said 'You've got some talent here, pursue it as a hobby or career.' "

After earning undergraduate degrees in journalism and secondary education and a master's in English, Parker decided to teach writing, and pursue it on a personal level.

His manuscript was sent to the publisher, RoseDog Books.

RoseDog later sent Parker an envelope with several copies of the final book inside.

"It really hits you all at once when you open the envelope," Parker said.

"When I opened up that folder and looked at it, I thought, 'Oh my goodness, this has really happened.' It was a wonderful feeling."

Though the book is based on a baseball player, Parker said there is something for everyone who loves to read.

"There's a love story and family secrets," Parker said.

"It provides something for people who maybe aren't necessarily baseball enthusiasts."

One of Parker's colleagues, Kim Nisky, an assistant professor of communications, said she is not a big baseball fan, but found the story behind the baseball interesting.

"You think about athletes, and they're stars," Nisky said. "This shows you how somebody becomes a star. It doesn't happen overnight, one pitch at a time. That was very intriguing to me."

In a way, Parker and his character mirror each other as they both put in hours of hard work and went step-by-step to achieve their dream.

"I never thought in a million years I'd be able to write a book, or write something someone else considered worthy of being published," Parker said.

"A lot of hard work paid off."