Times And Ages

A contemporary fiction series can be written on the understanding that all events occur on the fictional Earth at the same time as they are being written on Earth Real. I dislike it when a character remains the same age while the world ages around him although authors can do clever things with their time frames as I think that Ian Fleming does with James Bond. Different rules can apply when a series is set in the past or future.

Some of Poul Anderson's Series

Historical: The King Of Ys (with Karen Anderson)

Contemporary (?): The Trygve Yamamura Trilogy

Futuristic: Dominic Flandry

Alternative History: Operation Chaos

Time Travel: the Time Patrol

(As usual with such lists, it grows while being written. Anderson does more than just past, present and future.)

The Time Patrol has a contemporary aspect. Manse Everard, Patrol agent, is based in the twentieth century and his "present" is kept the same as that of Anderson and his readers, thus progressing from 1955 to 1990. Gorbachev is mentioned when he has come to power although the Patrol must have known of him earlier. Everard spends long spells in historical periods but benefits from future medical technology that gives him an indefinitely prolonged lifespan so that it does not matter that physically he is no older in 1990 than in 1955.