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rydeen1997.bsky.social
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@rydeen1997.bsky.social
510 followers 170 following 1.8K posts
writer & video editor. rtm mentee 2025. https://theturkishrug.wordpress.com/
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rydeen1997.bsky.social
OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA x MARTYR!

Want to draw your mother? Get her out the pond first. Keep her in the pond. Make use of your superpowers. Figure out your artistry - all of this in more or less this order, and before the crazy town you live in can harm her.

#questpit #W #A #F #S
Nymph‘s Pond, an upmarket fantasy at 80k The pitch Damla needs a personal element for her art project. Her lifeline is her mother who not only refuses, but disappears to a local pond. It turns out she‘s a nymph and claims that pond is hers. The pond owner disagrees with her. The town disagrees with her general existence. Caught between her mother’s mercurial moods, townspeople that egg her house, and the desire to figure out her own burgeoning sexuality and artistry, Damla’s own powers become and more unpredictable, threatening to erase her identity altogether... Vibes and comps: 🧜 an artist's coming of age 🧜 complex mother-daughter r/s 🧜 a hostile small town 🧜 a queer & female cast 🧜 battles w/ self-esteem 🧜 water powers reflecting emotions & past trauma Snippet: There she was. Out of the surface of the water her mother rose. A totally naked, stick-thin Derya Degirmenci stood in front of them all. Her skin looked as if she was made of algae and moving bruises, her hair was an ochre color, her green eyes darker than Damla had ever seen it, round and big to boot. She had no nose, and her skin shimmered in a way that it would on a fish’s scale. She did not at all look like the nymph paintings by John William Waterhouse. Her mother didn’t look like a human at all. She looked, instead, like she belonged to the sea, was a deep-sea creature best left untouched that had now been brought back on land to everybody’s chagrin. Here on land to haunt everybody it came across. But that was Hollywood, and this was real, and she was pissing Damla off.
November 5, 2025 at 11:44 AM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
When a nymph disappears into the local pond with no intention to leave, her daughter must risk her art school dreams to save her—from both the owner who wants to dry the pond and the town that wants them gone for good.

Meet NYMPH'S POND💙

#roundtablementor #A #F #L
October 27, 2025 at 10:25 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Damla needs the perfect portrait for art school. Her muse? Her mother, a nymph who refuses to leave the local pond. When its owner wants to dry it and the town grows violent, Damla must risk her dream to save her mom.

Meet NYMPH'S POND💙

#roundtablementor #A #F #L
October 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
i am officially back #amquerying my novel NYMPH'S POND - here is my agent's guide!

ft.
🧜 an artist's coming of age
🧜 complex mother-daughter r/s
🧜 a hostile small town
🧜 a queer & female cast
🧜 battles w/ self-esteem
🧜 water powers reflecting emotions & past trauma
NYMPH‘S POND AN 80K UPMARKET FANTASY NOVEL THE PITCH: Damla needs the perfect portrait for art school. Her muse? Her mother, a nymph who refuses to leave the local pond. When its owner wants to dry it and the town grows violent, Damla must risk her dream to save her mom. COMPS: * Julia Armfield - Our Wives Under The Sea * Adrienne Young - The Unmaking of June Farrow * Kelly Link - The Book of Love Snippet: Damla stretched out her hand. She put her palm up, and a drop fell in a dull thud. Thud, thud, thud, thick drops of water crashed against her palm. It was soft to the touch, not as cold as she thought it would be. Just like her mother, who had let the drops speak for her. Whose silence was her sharpest weapon. Whose anger was ice. Was this her mother?
October 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
yeeeeeeesss here is a snippet where a character talks about it
October 8, 2025 at 12:49 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
MARTYR x THE SHAPE OF WATER

a young artist needs the perfect portrait for art college. her muse? her mother — but not only does she disappear to the local pond, she is also a nymph and has no intention to leave.

#posterpit #posterpitq #spf #f #a
A young woman submerged in water, with her long blond hair flowing. The text reads: NYMPH'S POND to the left, and next to it: The struggling artist of MARTYR! small-town magic of THE BOOK OF LOVE ostracized water creatures of THE SHAPE OF WATER further below: an adult fantasy by Elif SInem Erdem
August 16, 2025 at 11:13 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
SHARP OBJECTS x THE SHAPE OF WATER

a young artist needs the perfect portrait for art college. her muse? her mother — but not only does she disappear to the local pond, she is also a nymph and has no intention to leave.

#posterpit #posterpitq #spf #f #a
A young woman submerged in water, with her long blond hair flowing. The text reads: NYMPH'S POND to the left, and next to it: The struggling artist of MARTYR! small-town magic of THE BOOK OF LOVE ostracized water creatures of THE SHAPE OF WATER further below: an adult fantasy by Elif SInem Erdem
August 16, 2025 at 1:18 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
SHARP OBJECTS x THE SHAPE OF WATER

a young artist needs the perfect portrait for art college. her muse? her mother — but not only does she disappear to the local pond, she is also a nymph and has no intention to leave.

#posterpit #posterpitq #spf #f #a
A young woman submerged in water, with her long blond hair flowing. The text reads: NYMPH'S POND to the left, and next to it: The struggling artist of MARTYR! small-town magic of THE BOOK OF LOVE ostracized water creatures of THE SHAPE OF WATER further below: an adult fantasy by Elif SInem Erdem
August 16, 2025 at 7:29 AM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
SHARP OBJECTS x THE SHAPE OF WATER

a young artist needs the perfect portrait for art college. her muse? her mother — but not only does she disappear to the local pond, she is also a nymph and has no intention to leave.

#queerpit #spf #mr #a
(picture of a pond) Nymph's Pond - an adult fantasy novel The pitch: Small towns gossip... and being different may prove fatal to her mother and Damla... Damla wants nothing more than to get into art college. But when her mother, the person she’d most like to draw, disappears into the town’s local pond, Damla must set out to retrieve her — only to realize that not only is her mother a nymph, she has no intention to leave that place. And what’s so special about that pond anyway? Damla uncovers a secret that could upend her life as she knows it... and powers she never knew she had. Comps to the left: * Kaveh Akbar's MARTYR! (künstlerroman) * Kelly Link's BOOK OF LOVE (small-town magic) * Zen Cho's BLACK WATER SISTER (filial piety vs freedom) * THE SHAPE OF WATER (dir. Guillermo del Toro) (inter-species (queer) romance) To the right - themes & elements: * a small-town with a secret * the struggles of a young artist * nymphs as sea-creatures * female-centric & sapphic cast * complicated mother-daughter relationships Snippet: Her mother, clearer than ever, and yes, more home than ever, too. Wet and looking calm, no unnecessary skin on her, thin but not skeletal, gaunt but not haunted. Blond hair almost golden from the water. Hazel eyes glimmering like polished wood. This was an image that Waterhouse would not have messed up. He’d have thought of it, and here it was, right in front of Damla, her own, personal Undine. But in her head, the image turned out ugly just by having Damla’s name on it. She thought of the arm that she had drawn earlier that day, the mangled arm that had mangled everything else about the artwork, and she knew that her mother was right. She had no skill. She didn’t know what she wanted besides wanting out. She couldn’t get into college. She was stuck with her mother, an artist without an artwork. All she did was paint Damla’s world black from the comfort of her big bathtub.
August 15, 2025 at 11:02 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
SHARP OBJECTS x THE SHAPE OF WATER

a young artist needs the perfect portrait for art college. her muse? her mother — but not only does she disappear to the local pond, she is also a nymph and has no intention to leave.

#queerpit #spf #mr #a
(picture of a pond) Nymph's Pond - an adult fantasy novel The pitch: Small towns gossip... and being different may prove fatal to her mother and Damla... Damla wants nothing more than to get into art college. But when her mother, the person she’d most like to draw, disappears into the town’s local pond, Damla must set out to retrieve her — only to realize that not only is her mother a nymph, she has no intention to leave that place. And what’s so special about that pond anyway? Damla uncovers a secret that could upend her life as she knows it... and powers she never knew she had. Comps to the left: * Kaveh Akbar's MARTYR! (künstlerroman) * Kelly Link's BOOK OF LOVE (small-town magic) * Zen Cho's BLACK WATER SISTER (filial piety vs freedom) * THE SHAPE OF WATER (dir. Guillermo del Toro) (inter-species (queer) romance) To the right - themes & elements: * a small-town with a secret * the struggles of a young artist * nymphs as sea-creatures * female-centric & sapphic cast * complicated mother-daughter relationships Snippet: Her mother, clearer than ever, and yes, more home than ever, too. Wet and looking calm, no unnecessary skin on her, thin but not skeletal, gaunt but not haunted. Blond hair almost golden from the water. Hazel eyes glimmering like polished wood. This was an image that Waterhouse would not have messed up. He’d have thought of it, and here it was, right in front of Damla, her own, personal Undine. But in her head, the image turned out ugly just by having Damla’s name on it. She thought of the arm that she had drawn earlier that day, the mangled arm that had mangled everything else about the artwork, and she knew that her mother was right. She had no skill. She didn’t know what she wanted besides wanting out. She couldn’t get into college. She was stuck with her mother, an artist without an artwork. All she did was paint Damla’s world black from the comfort of her big bathtub.
August 15, 2025 at 1:06 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
SHARP OBJECTS x THE SHAPE OF WATER

When Damla's mother, the person she’d most like to paint, disappears into the town’s local pond, Damla must set out to retrieve her. But her mother is a nymph, and she has no intention to leave.

#questpit #A #W #F
August 6, 2025 at 12:01 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
To get into art college, Damla needs the perfect portrait. She'd been planning to paint her mother, at least until she disappears into the town’s local pond. Retrieving her is difficult: she is a nymph—and has no intention to leave.

#QuestPit #A #F #S #W
(picture of a pond) Nymph's Pond - an adult fantasy novel The pitch: Small towns gossip... and being different may prove fatal to her mother and Damla... Damla wants nothing more than to get into art college. But when her mother, the person she’d most like to draw, disappears into the town’s local pond, Damla must set out to retrieve her — only to realize that not only is her mother a nymph, she has no intention to leave that place. And what’s so special about that pond anyway? Damla uncovers a secret that could upend her life as she knows it... and powers she never knew she had. Comps to the left: * Kaveh Akbar's MARTYR! (künstlerroman) * Kelly Link's BOOK OF LOVE (small-town magic) * Zen Cho's BLACK WATER SISTER (filial piety vs freedom) * THE SHAPE OF WATER (dir. Guillermo del Toro) (inter-species (queer) romance) To the right - themes & elements: * a small-town with a secret * the struggles of a young artist * nymphs as sea-creatures * female-centric & sapphic cast * complicated mother-daughter relationships Snippet: Her mother, clearer than ever, and yes, more home than ever, too. Wet and looking calm, no unnecessary skin on her, thin but not skeletal, gaunt but not haunted. Blond hair almost golden from the water. Hazel eyes glimmering like polished wood. This was an image that Waterhouse would not have messed up. He’d have thought of it, and here it was, right in front of Damla, her own, personal Undine. But in her head, the image turned out ugly just by having Damla’s name on it. She thought of the arm that she had drawn earlier that day, the mangled arm that had mangled everything else about the artwork, and she knew that her mother was right. She had no skill. She didn’t know what she wanted besides wanting out. She couldn’t get into college. She was stuck with her mother, an artist without an artwork. All she did was paint Damla’s world black from the comfort of her big bathtub.
August 6, 2025 at 4:00 AM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
SHARP OBJECTS X THE SHAPE OF WATER

Damla could control the water. She could fight her mother. But what she would do instead was try and understand her.

💧 magic realist künstlerroman
🌊 small town dread
☄️ female-centric cast
🩵 complex mother-daughter r/s

#questpit #A #W #F
May 7, 2025 at 2:02 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Damla wants the perfect, personal portfolio to finally enroll in the art college of her dreams. But in order to draw her mother, she must retrieve her from the pond she loves to swim in - and bring all her secrets out into the light...

#questpit #W #A #F #S
Nymph's Pond - an adult fantasy novel currently in progress The pitch: when her mother disappears into the town's local pond, Damla sets out to retrieve her - only to realize that her mother has no intention to leave it and keeps secrets that could change their relationship forever. The town's grudge against Damla and her mother might not be entirely unjustified... but potentially lethal all the same. Comps: small-town magic à la THE BOOK OF LOVE (Kelly Link) complicated sapphic relationships à la BLACK WATER SISTER (Zen Cho) magical realist künstlerroman à la THIRTY NAMES OF NIGHT (Zeyn Joukhadar) Themes & elements: - small town vibes - a distant mansion and an ostracized family - the struggles of a young artist - female-centric cast - complicated mother-daughter relationships - inspired by the paintings of John William Waterhouse Snippet: “Your art should strive for something universal. Nobody will care about your mother. Only of your skill.” Right in front of Damla were beautiful images waiting to be turned to paintings in her mind's eye. The silver of the pond. Her mother, clearer than ever, and yes, more home than ever, too. Wet and looking calm, no unnecessary skin on her, thin but not skeletal, gaunt but not haunted. Blond hair almost golden from the water. Hazel eyes glimmering like polished wood. This was an image that Waterhouse would not have messed up. He’d have thought of it, and here it was, right in front of Damla, her own, personal *Undine*. But in her head, the image turned out ugly just by having Damla’s name on it. She thought of the arm that she had drawn earlier that day, the mangled arm that had mangled everything else about the artwork, and she knew that her mother was right. She had no skill. She didn’t know what she wanted besides wanting *out*. She couldn’t get into college. She was stuck with her mother, an artist without an artwork. All she did was paint Damla’s world black from the comfort of her big bathtub. “And who cares about *yours*?” Damla asked. Her mother’s eyes widened ever so slightly, round and fish-like. It was the first time Damla had ever seen her mother in an emotion outside of cool annoyance.
May 7, 2025 at 12:01 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Damla wants the perfect, personal portfolio to finally enroll in the art college of her dreams. But in order to draw her mother, she must retrieve her from the pond she loves to swim in - and bring all her secrets out into the light...

SHARP OBJECTS X SHAPE OF WATER

#questpit #W #A #F #S
Nymph's Pond - an adult fantasy novel currently in progress The pitch: when her mother disappears into the town's local pond, Damla sets out to retrieve her - only to realize that her mother has no intention to leave it and keeps secrets that could change their relationship forever. The town's grudge against Damla and her mother might not be entirely unjustified... but potentially lethal all the same. Comps: small-town magic à la THE BOOK OF LOVE (Kelly Link) complicated sapphic relationships à la BLACK WATER SISTER (Zen Cho) magical realist künstlerroman à la THIRTY NAMES OF NIGHT (Zeyn Joukhadar) Themes & elements: - small town vibes - a distant mansion and an ostracized family - the struggles of a young artist - female-centric cast - complicated mother-daughter relationships - inspired by the paintings of John William Waterhouse Snippet: “Your art should strive for something universal. Nobody will care about your mother. Only of your skill.” Right in front of Damla were beautiful images waiting to be turned to paintings in her mind's eye. The silver of the pond. Her mother, clearer than ever, and yes, more home than ever, too. Wet and looking calm, no unnecessary skin on her, thin but not skeletal, gaunt but not haunted. Blond hair almost golden from the water. Hazel eyes glimmering like polished wood. This was an image that Waterhouse would not have messed up. He’d have thought of it, and here it was, right in front of Damla, her own, personal *Undine*. But in her head, the image turned out ugly just by having Damla’s name on it. She thought of the arm that she had drawn earlier that day, the mangled arm that had mangled everything else about the artwork, and she knew that her mother was right. She had no skill. She didn’t know what she wanted besides wanting *out*. She couldn’t get into college. She was stuck with her mother, an artist without an artwork. All she did was paint Damla’s world black from the comfort of her big bathtub. “And who cares about *yours*?” Damla asked. Her mother’s eyes widened ever so slightly, round and fish-like. It was the first time Damla had ever seen her mother in an emotion outside of cool annoyance.
May 7, 2025 at 6:52 AM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
sooo good www.nplusonemag.com/issue-44/ess...
March 16, 2025 at 11:57 AM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Every time there's a new reonagi moment we're reminded of the beginning like anyone forgot lmao
March 12, 2025 at 8:44 AM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
The hand on the head is killing me
March 10, 2025 at 9:27 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Fujimoto saw mickey17
March 9, 2025 at 12:28 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
It's March so emerald green is in order
March 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
February 28, 2025 at 2:40 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Blue Lock is so stupid, this can't be real lmfao
February 28, 2025 at 7:09 AM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Garbage day best newsletter on earth
February 26, 2025 at 8:47 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
Is this fucking shoujo trying to fucking queerbait me
February 26, 2025 at 5:08 PM
rydeen1997.bsky.social
countercraft.substack.com/p/processing... so good. so true
February 18, 2025 at 5:34 PM