The Flyover County series tells the tale of small-town America.  

 

Flyover County was my first novel. It is also the anchor novel for all my books. Flyover County is an imaginary county in South Dakota. It is the location of Helen, SD. An imaginary small town in middle America. 

 

Helen, South Dakota is a small town even by Midwestern standards. With its population of just under three hundred fifty souls, Helen does not stand out as anything special. Other than the fact that it is a small town of only three hundred fifty residents.
Helen has two churches, two taverns, a café, an auto repair shop, a hair salon, a Post Office, and the Quick Stop gas station up on the highway. There are other small businesses in town, the mayor owns and operates a small engine repair shop, and his brother has a well service. Like many Midwestern towns, there is a grain elevator nearby.
But it is not the layout of the streets or the number of business that makes up Helen, SD, it's the people. The lives of these three hundred fifty people have intertwined and merged through the course of years. The vast majority went to Helen Elementary School and then Helen High. They attended the Helen United Church or St. James Catholic Church. They have a common history, a history that includes pioneers, Conestoga wagons, sod huts, and railroad whistle stops. These children of rugged settlers have been told stories of severe conditions and major hardships. The past has ingrained a special set of values into the fiber of these descendants. It has fixed in their character a work ethic unmatched by children from other areas of the country.