Johnny Miller came into the world weighting less than three pounds, and spent the first year of his life in a shoebox crib. No one expected him to survive, Johnny was raised in the backwoods of a rural, central Arkansas settlement, where electricity and indoor plumbing were unheard of--at least, in the two-room log shanty that was home to his very impoverished family. Johnny's unvarnished, unfiltered talent for storytelling makes his readers feel as if they are right alongside him during his harrowing life experiences. His love for life and people permeates the pages of Cracks: Memoir of a Southern Plowboy . At the age of seventeen, Johnny, along with only eight classmates, graduated from Poyen High School. He then joined the military, became a member of the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, and is now a veteran of the Korean War. After college, Johnny became an educator whose students included author E. Lynn Harris and former President Bill Clinton. He spent the last twenty-three years of his career working for the Arkansas State Department of Education. He and his wife, Emma, now live in Austin, Texas. However, Johnny will always consider central Arkansas home. That is where his roots are and where he became a self-proclaimed southern plowboy.