Author Robert Byrne at work

Ever wonder how Bob Byrne got those little pictures into his instructional books? During my recent interview with the author, Bob explained that he actually had to cut and paste each one by hand. He used tape and rubber cement and an actual pair of scissors. Very old school. I've included a picture of Bob hard at work, above.

Byrne, as you may already know, is the author of his Standard Book of Pool & Billiards,  Complete Book of Pool Shots and most recently, Behold My Shorts. He's our sport's most successful living author -- a testament to his lively writing and ability to clearly explain sometimes difficult concepts.

One thing I enjoy most about his instructional books are the diagrams. They always include a line drawing of a guy's back and arm, shooting pool. Bob tells me he was the model for the shooter, who in the images often appears to have changed his shirt. "The table diagram and the shooter were drawn by a professional artist and what I do is put the balls on using a plastic template, add lettering if needed, and draw the ball paths with triangles and French curves," he explains.

Bob further explains in an interview you can find elsewhere on this site that he had a professional photographer perch atop a step ladder to capture original images for his books. To read that Q&A, keep scrolling down or just click here. And you can see more photos of the templates by navigating through the jump break by clicking on the "read more" link.

-- R.A. Dyer