Very occasionally you'll find my work in science fiction magazines that borders into the fantasy genre. I have a specific background with fantasy that makes this kind of weird. For a long time I detested fantasy, because most the of the fantasy fiction that I had been exposed to, had been from the nineteen eighties and nineties. Much of the time, if I woman were sentenced to be beheaded they would usually either be rescued by a dashing white night, or alternatively if actually executed, their decapitation cut off screen. Contrast this with horror genre written around the same time, and you had a lot more on screen decapitations.
There were a few other issues of course, but this became one of my obsessions. For a long time I avoided even reading fantasy just for this fact alone. Although when I was introduced to Japanese animation, part of this general frustration changed somewhat. But generally, I still largely don't care for the medieval setting, and while such a society isn't required for fantasy, the only fantasy stories I've really liked had been in the realm of what they now call Urban Fantasy. And then of course, there is magical realism. Neither of which necessarily implies an overused damsel in distress rescue arc. And it could be argued that Medieval doesn't have to be either, but if its written for the screen in the "United States" it's probably going to talk down to women somewhat.
The other reason is I've never really been interested in time periods before around the English Civil War, and generally not in England for a lot of similar reason, but combined with the fact that if you're writing about what really happened, the ending is pretty much already set in stone.
So writing The Incarnations Of Hemato-Tomato And Anna-Marie was somewhat of a venture into the dark.