The combination of occasional insomnia and late-night movies may lead to the writing of books. During a sleepless night, I experienced a television showing of Cool Hand Luke (Internet Movie Database, 1967) during the wee hours. Among this movie’s most memorable lines are, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men, you just can’t reach. So, you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don’t like it any more than you men” (Internet Movie Database, 1967). This portion of movie script spurred me to search meticulously for law enforcement or criminal justice textbooks that were authored from the perspective of communication. I located relatively few, reviewed their contents, and believed some colleagues and I could offer a new approach regarding the subject matter. The sandman’s absence sparked a moment of inspiration that resulted in the crafting of a book outline.
Nearly a year later, after having finished a draft manuscript of this book, I once again found myself awake during the wee hours because of discomforts resulting from hernia surgery and the necessity of proofreading chapters. I again had the joys of late-night television while waiting for the pills from my trusty bottles of Demerol and Phenergan to blissfully quash the pain and soreness, and vastly modify my proofreading abilities. A Clint Eastwood movie marathon was on the tube that night.