T.R. Hendricks
The Infiltrator
DOSSIER update 4/23/2024
Since meeting T.R. Hendricks at ThrillerFest 2023, I’ve followed his writing career with great enthusiasm. First, his book THE INSTRUCTOR was a wild ride I thoroughly enjoyed. I didn’t see that exact story line coming, but Tim was able to thread in many of the characteristics and emotions that are present in many of today’s military veterans. They were things I recognized in the people I’ve worked with, if not in my own self, and many of them, I suspect, Tim experienced in his own life, as well.
Since that day in July, we’ve stayed in touch, and Tim’s been a tremendous support to my own writing career and what’s going on here at The Dossier. I’m thrilled to feature him, and I’m excited for everyone to jump into his new book, THE INFILTRATOR. He was kind enough to provide an update since last year, and in true T.R. Hendricks fashion, he crushed it with some of the most entertaining answers we’ve seen since … well, we revealed his first Dossier. This guy is a blast. Soak it up with a smile.
DOSSIER: Since your hit debut THE INSTRUCTOR burst onto the scene last year, people have taken notice (in a stalker kind of way) and have asked The Dossier guy things such as, “What is this T.R. Hendricks guy really like?” The Dossier has already revealed how you sequester yourself for your writing, surviving on beef jerky and Reese’s peanut butter cups. but what is T.R. really, really up to these days? People (and aliens) are literally dying to know.
TR: The details of my life are quite inconsequential, but here goes. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon. Luge lessons. In the spring we’d make meat helmets. Recently I’ve taken up competing in krabi–krabong matches in Bangkok and donating my winnings to the Thai Buddhist monastery I’ve settled in. It’s not much, but every Thai baht earned helps with the construction. For all the ladies out there who are wondering, sorry but I’m currently caught between two gorgeous women vying for my affection. One’s a vampire and the other is a werewolf, but whatever. I like complicated things. Astronomy is a big hobby. I’ve recently discovered a new exomoon that I randomly named LV-426. A buddy of mine at NASA, Carter Burke, said it has the potential to be a terraforming colony. I think they might send a mission there. How cool would that be? Anyway, that’s about it. Sorry to truncate this answer, but I have to make final preparations for my trip to Venice. My dad’s disappeared and I need to find him before his grail diary falls into the wrong hands.
DOSSIER: Early bootleg copies of THE INFILTRATOR have surfaced out of North Korea where the society there is scared sh!tless of Derek Harrington. Translated comments reveal they all want to know, “What kind of a mind can come up with this kind of stuff?” Although you’re hard at work crafting the story for book three by candlelight in a cave somewhere, what can you tell us about how your next novel/autobiography will shock the world?
TR: You remember that scene in World War Z, when David Morse’s ex-CIA character was talking about how North Korea accomplished the greatest feat of social engineering in history when they managed to remove the teeth of all 23 million in the country in less than 24 hours? Well, that line is based on the real life exploits of Derek Harrington, who has a talent for knocking out pearly whites. I swear, that guy makes more Chicklets fall to the floor than an NHL enforcer.
The Autumn’s Tithe saga continues to ratchet up in pressure as more of the overarching nefarious scheme is revealed, and the characters involved become more desperate. You can expect even more harrowing situations and brutal action that will set the stage for a final confrontation in DH #4. At the same time, I’ve got a ton of other irons in the fire. Dystopian survival. Unromantic vampire blight. A privatized warship battling modern day pirates. A mob hitman origin story. Harry Houdini. A distant future sci-fi where humans create biological clones of a planet’s tall, blue indigenous species in order to gain their trust before robbing the planet’s resources. Stories of human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Just mass hysteria all around!
Buckle up kids. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads…
Original Dossier interview 9/25/2023
DOSSIER: What’s the best thing about The Instructor?
TR: The unhindered ability to live out a Rambo-style adventure filled with wilderness survival, interrogation resistance, and blistering firefights from the safety of your recliner while you slather cheese from a spray can onto crackers in nothing but your bathrobe.
DOSSIER: When and where do you write, and what kind of environment do you prefer?
HENDRICKS: I hike about 12 miles to a cave overlooking the Hudson river that I will sequester myself in for weeks at a time, living solely off beef jerky and Reese’s peanut butter cups while writing by candlelight. I use a quill fashioned from a femur bone and a skull filled with the blood of my enemies to etch down my ramblings on 100% recycled paper from Staples. Besides the persistent drip of glacial melt, the only sound I work to is the lamentations of my vanquished foes echoing in memory.
DOSSIER: How long did it take you to go from idea to publication?
HENDRICKS: Technically, five years. But in reality, I met up with a brilliant scientist who had a stash of stolen plutonium he got from Libyan terrorists, and through harnessing the power of 1.21 gigawatts, was able to teleport me exactly to my debut date.
DOSSIER: What are you working on right now?
HENDRICKS: Right now it’s book #3 (title to be revealed) in the Derek Harrington series while awaiting the copy edits for the sequel (THE INFILTRATOR, out April 2024 from Tor/Forge and available for preorder). I’m also contemplating doing a nonfiction work on creating cave paintings by candlelight.
DOSSIER: What would you be doing if you weren’t a published author?
HENDRICKS: Probably working on my other dream of becoming an Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling.
Website: T.R. Hendricks | Amazon Page
Jeff Circle 