In our continuing Profile Series, Five Rivers presents, Nate Hendley, author and freelance journalist.

Q: You originally majored in Cultural Studies at Trent University. Why Cultural Studies?

Nate: The honest answer is that I couldn’t major in Political Science, because I neglected to take some important pre-requisite courses. I really had no idea what I was doing at university and sort of fell into Cultural Studies because it seemed interesting. I didn’t want to major in English, which was another option.

Q: How does someone studying the humanities end up pursuing a career as a writer, moreover a career as primarily a writer of crime-based books?

Nate: I discovered pretty quickly that you couldn’t earn a living with a degree in Cultural Studies unless you want to be a professor, so I went back to school to learn journalism. And one of the things you find out quickly in [journalism]-school is the notion that ‘if it bleeds, it reads’. In other words, gaudy crime stories are among the most popular articles in a newspaper or on TV. So I already had a natural inclination towards sensational topics.

I became an author after pitching a book publisher a story about Edwin Alonzo Boyd—a Toronto bank robber from the 1950s who died around 2002, at age 88 or something. The publisher liked my book and asked me to write more along the same lines. So, I did a book about The Black Donnellys—a rather ill-fated farm family from southern Ontario in the Victorian era. I kind of fell into writing crime books by accident, but I found I quite enjoyed the subject matter and pursued it. I didn’t have the inclination (or the marks) to follow a career in academia. Otherwise, I might be writing learned papers on sociological topics, as opposed to crime books.

Q: Would you say your youth and family background played an important role in your career choice, and why?

Nate: There was always encouragement to read when I was growing up. My parents had subscriptions to a million magazines and their living room shelves were filled with books. My mom worked as a librarian so she was always bringing home cool new titles to read. My parents also encouraged their kids to think for themselves and think outside the box, to use a dreadful cliché. My parents were both raised Catholic, for example, but they switched to the Anglican church for a variety of reasons. My parents were both American, but moved to Canada. So my family already had a tradition of kind of breaking away from the mould as it were. They weren’t authoritarian and we weren’t forced to harness ourselves to a particular creed, dogma or political mindset.

Q: You also have a sister, Alicia Hendley, who will see her debut novel published this year. It would appear you come from a very literate, cultured family. Is that the case?

Nate: Yes. We are all avid readers and writers. My father was a philosophy professor who wrote books, my brother is a history professor who writes books, my sister—as you know—is a psychologist who writes novels, and my mother—who worked in public and academic libraries—writes personal non-fiction. We were exposed to a wide variety of cultural influences as kids—my parents would take us to Stratford, Ontario, to see live theatre every year. Things weren’t all high brow, however; my dad took my brother and I to see professional wrestling at the Kitchener auditorium when we were in university. A true family highlight.

Q: Why the fascination with what many would call the dark, seedy side of life?

Nate: Generally, people who live in the dark, seedy side of life are more interesting than straight folks. I would find it difficult, for example, to write a biography about a great guy who came from a wholesome background and worked as a small-town physician all his life. Unless he murdered a few people or sold dope, his life—however commendable—would make for a really boring book. Evil is generally more interesting than good.

Q: Tell us about the genesis of your forth-coming book, Crystal Death, what was the inspiration and how did you develop that idea?

Nate: I had been reading about methamphetamine for several years, primarily in sources such as Rolling Stone and Details magazines. I was curious to find out if these press accounts were true—was meth really as horrible as they said it was? After doing my research, I can say, yes, it is. When I got the opportunity to write about methamphetamine, at the suggestion of a publisher, I leapt on it.

Q: There must have been a great deal of research required to write the book with any authority. How was that research conducted, how long did it take, and did it require travel or were you able to conduct that research through modern communication technologies?

Nate: After reading up on the subject of methamphetamine, I contacted various experts and users, past and present. I got in touch with drug counsellors and doctors who knew a few things about treating meth addiction and could speak with authority on the chemical makeup of the drug and its biological effects on the human body. I also contacted a few methamphetamine recovery websites (of which, there appear to be many) and posted a note explaining that I was an author looking for interview subjects—people who had either done or sold meth. I made it clear I wasn’t a cop, I wasn’t about [to] condemn anyone, and that I would use only first-names or pseudonyms, if the interview subject so requested. I did most of the interviews via email (such is the miracle of modern technology that I didn’t actually have to travel to L.A. or Missouri – America’s heartland meth capital. I also gleaned a lot of helpful info from government sources, such as the Drug Enforcement Agency and substance abuse surveys. Overall, the book took about a year to put together, though I was working on various other projects as well throughout that time.

Q: Why is crystal meth such a dangerous drug? What makes it different from crack, heroin, or even marijuana?

Nate: As one of my interview subjects explained, methamphetamine is a completely artificial, manufactured poison. The very chemicals used to make meth—including lye, red phosphorus, iodine, ether, acetone, etc—are all pretty nasty on their own. Even making meth is dangerous—methamphetamine cookers have been known to blow themselves to smithereens or accidentally produce poison gas which kills them [the manufacturers]. So when you take methamphetamine, you’re basically consuming the end-product of a toxic chemical process.

Other drugs, such as crack, heroin, and marijuana, all derive from natural sources—coca leaves, opium poppies and cannabis plants. Being all-natural doesn’t mean these drugs are safe, but they’re less horrifically toxic than meth.

Drugs such as heroin and cocaine have to be shipped in from abroad: there is no domestic opium poppy or coca-leaf market to tap into in Canada or the U.S. Methamphetamine, on the other hand, is a made-in-North America drug success story. It can be manufactured with ingredients bought legally at a farm equipment store or pharmacy and made according to recipes downloaded from the Internet.

Heroin and cocaine were for decades seen as the worst illegal drugs known to man. One thing that kept them out of reach of people, however, was their high price tag. It was simply too expensive for a lot of folks to be a heroin or coke addict. Methamphetamine—like crack cocaine (a derivative of powdered cocaine) is very cheap. Unlike crack, however, methamphetamine offers a very long ride. A tiny bit will make a user higher than a kite for hours.

Meth is also what sociologists call ‘criminogenic’—it triggers criminal behaviour. Potheads and heroin addicts are generally pretty sedate when they’re high. People on booze, cocaine or meth, however, are more prone to fighting or other weird violent behaviour. Staying up for a week on end and dealing with low life types generally has that affect on people. Meth also induces people to engage in risky sexual behaviour—having lots of sex with lots of people—which of course, increases the chances of getting or spreading a sexually transmitted disease. Or pregnant, if you happen to be female.

Q: In writing the book, did you find the information you accumulated changed your outlook, and how?

Nate: Nothing really changed my outlook on anything, though I was surprised to discover that Japanese Kamikaze would be fed near-lethal doses of meth before they boarded their planes to smash into American ships. Given that one of the effects of methamphetamine is fearlessness and reckless behaviour, this totally makes sense.

Q: You’ve also written biographies about Al Capone, Dutch Schultz and John Lennon which are to be re-released later this year. Certainly these historic figures have been oft-chronicled. Why write another biography?

Nate: Crime and music are similar in that they offer lots of colour and action to write about. Unless you’re a particularly horrible reporter, it’s almost impossible to write a dull article about say, a murder trial, or a really exciting music concert. I’m interested in writing about larger-than-life characters, and certainly Capone, Schultz and Lennon fit that category. Covering these subjects also allows me to interject my own opinions about various subjects, such as Prohibition or Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono.

Q: When not writing books you also earn your keep as a freelance writer and media trainer. Tell us a little about those pursuits and how you balance that with the larger undertaking of writing a book.

Nate: I write for a wide variety of publications, most of them in the trade press. I contribute, for example, to Canadian Printer, Canadian Metalworking, Canadian Grocer, etc. Lots of trade mags with the word ‘Canadian’ in their title. Doing this work pays the bills and helps keep me grounded. As an author, you run the risk of getting all high and mighty and snooty because you crank out books. It’s difficult to maintain that attitude when you’ve got a deadline to write about fresh lettuce or a new lathe.

My general routine is to work on magazine stuff during the day and books in the evening and weekend. I’ve reconciled myself to working constantly, which is fine, because I enjoy it. I also do a bit of media training, which involves running clients through mock interviews to prepare them for the rigours of dealing with the press. It’s a lot of fun and pays very well.

Q: To decompress I understand you are an avid cyclist and also play the guitar. Tell us a little about those personal pursuits and what they do for you.
Nate: I am a very avid mountain biker. I’m blessed in that Toronto—of all places—offers some great off-road mountain biking in the Don Valley. There’s several well-worn courses in the Valley, some of them with neatly marked trails, signs, and even ramps and bridges over creeks. There’s an underground army of bicycle elves that build and construct and these trails, which I suspect are illegal. Anyway, mountain biking in the Don keeps me sane by draining me physically (while pumping up my endorphins) while presenting constant new challenges, in the form of tough new courses.

Guitar playing offers a creative outlet and its own degree of challenges, in terms of trying to master tough new songs and lyrics.

Nate Hendley’s book, Crystal Death: Methampthetamine, North America’s #1 Killer Drug, is slated for release in the fall of 2010 by Five Rivers, along with Al Capone: Chicago’s King of Crime, Dutch Schultz: the Brazen Beer Baron of New York,  John Lennon, a Biography, and Motivate to Create: a Guide for Writers throughout the year. In 2011 China: the New Superpower will be released.

Nate Hendley lives in Toronto, Ontario with his cat.