What Year Is It In Plagued?

I get asked pretty consistently what year it is in the Plagued States of America series of books. The best answer is that it is "modern day." This doesn't mean it is 2013 (the year it was first published), or this year, or next. It means think of any time around the turn of the century and stop everything right there.

Modern day comes with all the basic amenities of today, minus about ten years of rigorous technological breakthroughs. Also present are all the setbacks the loss of a major waterway, plus enormous rail systems, and centralized communications centers, would bring. In essence, the US as we know it now, but in a third-world setting.

It is safe to think that the iPhone is around, but "plants vs. zombies" isn't (I don't think it would have the same appeal in a post-apocalyptic setting). Getting directions on Google maps would have you avoiding roads through the Plagued States. There's no Chicago Board of Trade, or any of their professional sports teams - although the Blackhawks did relocate to Seattle during the chaos of the initial outbreak and won eight straight Stanley Cups. There are over two hundred million very poor people and a government that is strapped for cash. Americans don't consume nearly as much as our economy relied upon, so we are in a deep recession. We stopped outsourcing jobs altogether because local labor became cheaper. And America doesn't have a problem with immigration because no one wants to come here anymore, thanks to an ever present fear of zombies. The world is filled with American expatriates and America-haters.

But all of that really doesn't matter. The Plagued States of America series of books aren't supposed to be about the post-apocalyptic world. They are about the small group of characters who occupy the pages, and the action-packed adventures that they endure as a matter of life or death.