Testimonials
“I have been hoping someone would take on this project with full commitment to work out the details of a comprehensive theory of drama from a feminine perspective, and I believe you are about to read a book that does exactly that.
What I found on these pages was an eye-opening retelling of the universal human story from a feminine perspective, with quite different language and thinking than I had ever considered.
This book repeatedly pounds me with how much I didn’t know. The author has done a thorough, and I mean thorough, research job on archetypes and psychological theory and you won’t find a more lucid guide to these sometimes challenging concepts.
This book brings light to the mysteries of the feminine experience of life’s journey and delivers a boon to screenwriters and storytellers of all kinds.”
— Chris Vogler, The Writer's Journey
“For a work as thought provoking and even profound as this, The Virgin’s Promise is thankfully accessible and not for a moment esoteric during its read. The icing on the cake is Hudson’s style and use of language. At once simple and yet complex.”
— Deepa Mehta, director/screenwriter Earth, Fire, Water, and Bollywood/Hollywood
“A story well told can change the world. Hudson unlocks the secret to writing stories of self-fulfillment in this lovely and inspiring book. A must read for storytellers and screenwriters.”
— Mireille Soria, producer of Ever After
Kim Hudson, you will never see this, in all likelihood, because this interview is from 8 years ago, but you are a genius. And I love that you uncovered a pattern that was always there, and something that rings true to people’s lives, and has a deep soulful resonance. I just heard about it today and it has blown my mind and my heart. I hope one day you write your sequel to The Virgin’s Promise. I would buy it day one.”
— Sherwin Sullivan Tjia on Julia Widdop youtube
I just wanted to get in touch and thank you again for the great course at Raindance - I enjoyed every minute of it and have taken a lot away that will be useful in my future writing. The course was well constructed and the combination of information, example and exercise were incredibly helpful and embedded the steps in my mind.
— Laura Oheimer, London
A friend of mine and I were recently discussing some writing issues she was having. I kept pointing her back to The Hero’s Journey. She kept pushing back hard. It didn’t feel right or true in her experience. As an ignorant white man, I just didn’t understand what she was saying or why she was resisting what “everyone knew to be true.”
Eventually she went to the Internet to find a feminist critique of the HJ that made sense to her. She stumbled on a blog that referenced your book, The Virgin’s Promise. She shared it with me.
Wow. Talk about shifting my perspective. I read your book and it was like a thousand watt light bulb turned on.
I could go on and on, but I really just wanted to say thank you for your work. It changed my life, the way I see my own journey and the journey of countless others, for the better. I feel like it gave me “permission” to be on the journey I am on. And it helped me to understand and support others who’ve chosen to live their truth irrespective of what our culture might think is “appropriate” or “normal.”
Thank you so much,
— Ron Tester, CEC Growth Strategist
I'm writing mainly to let you know something about the effect of your book, The Virgin's Promise. I've been proofreading and providing notes on screenplays for aspiring writers for the past year and a half. At least a dozen times so far, instead of yelling at young male writers for female characters who were painfully embarrassing to read, I've recommended your book. I did so as recently as the day before yesterday. Your book makes it so much easier to see and discuss the flaws in the way many of my male clients write female characters, and give them a path to healing their thinking about female characters.
— Bill Donavan, Inside Info
Just wanted to say once again how much I enjoyed your course this weekend gone. I’m going to get into your book and some serious work over the coming months, thanks to your jolt!
I think what came across most for me, and I’m not sure it’s necessarily a male vs female trait, but you were very giving, open and without ego. You seemed interested in imparting your knowledge and many people of similar high repute aren’t like that. Men or women!
So, thank you. I wish you all the best with everything and we are destined to cross paths once again, of that I am now certain. Until then, be lucky!
— London Workshop Participant
I wanted to thank you for running last month's workshop at Raindance. I found the contrast to the Hero's Journey intriguing; in particular, the new focus on uncertainty and trusting intuition, as well as not needing goals to be clearly identified at the start of a story and only revealing them at the end as an insight gained.
I found the workshop useful to provide a framework to sit down and develop a story. I came with a blank page and now I've got a pretty cool story emerging!
— London Workshop Participant
I have been reading your book with delight and re-reading some sections over and over again. It feels as if you have been writing about my life. Hmmm..... I had no idea this is what I had been living through. Thank you for shedding some light onto the difficulties too.
— Virgin’s Promise Reader
Five platinum stars for The Virgin’s Promise, even with the typos the ebook version introduced. One thing that the book does delightfully disappoint on, is that like many books of it's ilk, it is not a book you could read in an hour, or once. Inside, concepts-wise it is at least three books as big as is the norm for books this size. Albeit in fewer pages, and not a tough read.
Among the "books," within the book, is her own classification of Jungian archetypes. It is unique and so logically related to life stages — you'd never need to memorize the archetypes list again, or even remember their names.
The book offers a detailed preamble, explaining why and how we are missing a perspective we didn't know we were missing. Once you see it, you can't un-see this revolution without a revolt. And then you find it present and absent, and the emotional consequence in many classical or new stories and paradigms.
That for me, over eight years would include a smattering of narrative theory esoterica, myth, locating a song's emotional note, and delightfully, a deeper and puzzlingly³ vindicating look at the richness of category romances — letting me see afresh not just the obvious emotional depth albeit even in layers of a fabled Chaucerian tale, and of course, Fairy Tales. That alone should draw the attention of writers, psychologists and real problem-solvers.
If you, like many of us, also have unresolved issues, know in advance you might also have tough moments of catharsis more than once. She hits so many human beats honestly it is not funny. It is regardless, a paradigm of unconditional hope so if you are striving, you'd love its promise.
Yet deeper and altogether new — note it was first published in 2010 — another insight and an unsung harbinger is her seamless movement between mainstream examples and those of diverse races, ethnicities, sex orientations and gender fluidity. Love matters to her thought, only a lot more profoundly than most of us. Arguably, it is now harder for is to un-see that perspective.
The author includes a paint by numbers starting point for absolute beginners, and an introduction to developing a complex story, including the Hero's Journey. Her breakdown of the Hero's Paradigm may not be as even Vogler himself would see it, and that may be a point.
Then there is the largest collection of movie synopses I recall in any one book, to help explain the model.
In a way this book is absolutely new and profound. While she references Bob McKee and Chris Vogler's work herself, it says something how congruently it also fits with Mike Hauge's six stages of character development. So you are never trading away a model, just growing yours. In short — read. Must read.
— Sandeep Gupta, LA Theorist