The first Enchanted, Inc., book was published in 2005, and although there are no precise date stamps in that book or elsewhere in the series, that’s when I mentally set the book. I worked out the timeline for events in that book on a calendar for that year because when I was writing it in the fall of 2003, I figured that was the year it was most likely to end up being published. I stuck to that timeline for the rest of the books.
But that means that time passes more slowly in that universe. By the seventh book, Kiss and Spell, only a year had passed for the characters. Now, as I return to the series more than a decade after it began, I’ve decided to maintain that timeline rather than trying to jump ahead or pretend that the books are always happening now, whenever that happens to be. This book begins in the fall of 2006 and moves into early 2007. I’ve tried to keep technology, pop culture references, and events consistent with that time.
That’s why no one has smart phones (the first iPhone wasn’t released until June of 2007) or tablets. No one’s talking about the new Star Wars movies (they’re still recovering from the prequels). And there are some businesses referred to that were still operating then that no longer exist.