‘I thought I had an exciting life’: Bluffton author draws on old adventures in book sequel
When Cynthia W. Hammer was in middle school in Maryland during the 1970s, she stood in line with her class and waited her turn to choose a book to read.
The students went in alphabetical order, which meant Hammer, whose maiden name begins with a “W,” was left with slim pickings.
There was a science book, a sports book and just one other, “What is Black?” by Bettye F. Baker.
Hammer, the only black student in her class, briefly wondered whether her classmates had purposely left it for her but decided instead to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one.
She took the book home and quickly fell in love with it.
Then she saw a photo of the author.
“She’s black! She’s black! The author’s black!” she yelled out.
Seeing Baker made her feel less alone in her all-white friend group, in an all-white neighborhood. Seeing Baker made her realize that she too could be a writer if she so desired.
Later she prayed, “Dear God, let me meet Miss Bettye Baker one day.”
Later still, she dreamed she had.
In the dream was a gravel driveway, a split-rail fence and a sense that she was in North Carolina.
Hammer, who splits her time between Bluffton and Santa Barbara, California, with her husband, Steve, recalled the story Monday. It’s one of many moments in her childhood that would end up becoming significant to her.
Not only do her memories of friendships, peer pressure, bullying, family and love serve as inspiration for her writing, she sees them as further evidence that God is watching out for her.
“I thought I had an exciting life,” she said about the rites of passage from her childhood. “It was very adventurous. I always thought we were the only kids doing this stuff.”
Back then, she’d tell her friends, “One day I’m going to write about this.”
Now on tour with her third book, “The Seven Rivers,” Hammer has long since fulfilled her promise.
“It’s a freedom,” she said of writing. “I can feel the release. I have a lot of books in my head.”
The coming-of-age novel is a sequel to her first book, “Iceburg,” which is based on an incident that happened when she around 12.
At that time, she had a secret that scared her. She had recurring dreams that seemed to come true in some form or another.
When she finally told her parents, they assumed it was a bid for attention, one they’d come to expect from their second-youngest of six.
One of those dreams, though, was haunting her. In it, her younger brother is playing with friends on the river near their home and he falls through the ice.
She thought he would die.
But when this very thing happened in real life, Hammer saved him.
Because of her prescient dreams, which she believes are prompts from God, Hammer has learned to trust her instincts and go with her gut.
This has led her far and wide, from one coast to the other, and has brought an openness to her interactions along the way, using the advice her mother gave her, “’Hi’ don’t cost nothing.”
“I think people are fascinating,” she said. “What a joy it is to see the beauty of people.”
She goes out of her way to seek those connections, no matter what kind of day she might be having, she said.
“When I’m having those days,” she said, “I just say ‘Something good is going to happen to me today.’ Sometimes you have to speak it into fruition.”
On her way to becoming a writer — as well to acting in movies and hosting a radio show — Hammer owned a cleaning company outside of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where she spoke into fruition a meeting between her and an influential woman she had heard lived in town and had written some books.
She wanted to offer her services to the woman, but mostly she wanted to talk to her about writing.
She went to the woman’s house and the two hit it off, Hammer said.
The woman, it turned out, was working on a novel about a lumber town in North Carolina.
Hammer, having grown up in a lumber town herself, told the woman, “Start with the sound of the saws and the smell of the sawdust.”
The woman encouraged Hammer to write the story of her brother’s accident on the ice.
“There’s a book I want to show you,” the woman said, “but I can’t find it.”
It was then Hammer realized who the woman was.
Hammer — whose home had a split-rail fence and a gravel drive — contacted a librarian friend of hers and asked for a favor.
“It wasn’t easy to find this,” her friend said, giving her the book.
When Hammer went back to the woman’s house, she kept the book behind her back.
Then she pulled it out.
“Miss Bettye Baker,” Hammer said, “will you sign ‘What is Black?’ for me?”
If you go
Cynthia W. Hammer will sign copies of her books, including “The Seven Rivers,” from noon to 2 p.m. Jan. 11 at McIntosh Book Shoppe, 917 Bay St., Beaufort; from 1 to 3 p.m. Feb. 15 at Beaufort Bookstore, 2127 Boundary St., Beaufort; and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Gullah Market and Block Party at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island.
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 4:55 AM.
