What's the Tense?

I’ve been thinking a lot about tenses in books lately: past tense vs. present tense.  I tend to lean towards past tense when I write.  Whether its 1st person or 3rd person, I always see my story being told as a flashback, a memory my main character is reliving.  Sometimes I even picture my character as an old person on their porch, rocking in a chair, telling their story to their grandchild.  For some reason, I never see my character as living it in the moment.  I wonder how other authors come to the conclusion to use present tense versus past tense.

I bring this up because the last three books I’ve read have all been present tense.  I sometimes feel like this tense became popular after The Hunger Games.  In some cases, there seems to be one book or series that starts a trend or at least brings the trend to the fore front.  Harry Potter did it with magic, Twilight with vampires and even Diary of a Wimpy Kid with journal books.  So I can’t help but think that Suzanne Collins made this particular tense more popular.  I don’t blame writers.  With the success of The Hunger Game trilogy, who wouldn’t want to try to hit gold using the same technique?  It just makes me ponder.

I know every story is different and I have been known to switch from 3rd person to 1st and back again.  Who knows, maybe I will be able to see one of my stories told in the present tense someday.