Hanford Insider - Katelind Donahue - "The Writer's Haven"

A town grows when people show up for each other, and this week we spotlight how Hanford’s energy is fueling real creative work. We kick off with quick hits around the city: a new city manager sworn in, downtown speakers set to bring music to Irwin, Douty, and 7th, and educator honors that remind us how much local champions matter. The community calendar overflows with film at the Fox, exhibits at the Carnegie Museum, and a comic con at Fraternal Hall—proof that there’s always a reason to step out and connect.

Then we sit down with Katelind Donahue to unpack Writer’s Haven, a grassroots group that turned online writing sprints into a living, breathing space for aspiring authors. Katelind shares how a love for library shelves and a push from her mom evolved into a Starbucks conference room filled with laptops, notebooks, and quiet resolve. Every other Saturday, six to ten writers lock in for two hours, draft pages, and trade encouragement. We talk about why long-form storytelling still matters in a scroll-first world, how fantasy worldbuilding demands patience and care, and why community can be the missing ingredient between idea and finished chapter.

We also explore the craft itself: the surprising benefits of handwriting for memory and character voice, the way stress can be shaped into scenes, and how simple structures like timed sprints help writers of every level—from first drafts to query-ready manuscripts—stay consistent. Katelind introduces Garden of Honey, her faith-centered podcast focused on prayer, emotional regulation, and healing, and shares how to connect on Instagram and Facebook, with virtual sessions coming soon for those outside the area. We wrap with a full local sports roundup to keep you current heading into playoff season.

If this story moved you, follow the show on your favorite app, share it with a friend who needs a nudge to write, and leave a quick review to help more neighbors find us.

You can find the Hanford Insider at www.hanfordinsider.com and on social media at @hanfordinsider
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Transcript

Welcome & Community Headlines

SPEAKER_01 0:01

On this episode of The Hanford Insider, Caitlyn DeDonohue shares the vision for her new project for aspiring writers, the Riders Haven. We'll get a look at some of this week's community events, and I'll be back with your sports report. This is the Hanford Insider for Monday, February 9th.

Downtown Activation & School Honors

SPEAKER_02 0:50

I'm your host, Rob Bentley, and each week we shine a spotlight on our community, celebrate local successes, and share what's happening around town. Thanks for joining us. Let's get started. In community news, congratulations to Chris Tavares, our new Hanford City Manager, on his official swearing-in ceremony last Thursday evening. The council chamber was packed with family, friends, and colleagues to celebrate this special occasion with him. We'll have him on the show in a few weeks. The next Hanford City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 17th. Main Street Hanford announced last week that they're going to be installing outdoor speakers downtown along Irwin, Dowdy, and 7th Streets this spring. Very soon, music will be filling the streets, creating a lively and welcoming atmosphere for shoppers and diners and the businesses that call downtown Hanford home. This enhancement is part of Main Street's efforts to activate public spaces, elevate the downtown experience, and make historic downtown Hanford an even more vibrant place to gather, stroll, and stay. The Hanford Joint Union High School District recently announced their employees of the year. The administrator of the year is Hanford High School Principal Darren Parson. The teacher of the year is Luis Garcia. And the classified employee of the year is Daniel Augusto. Congratulations to all of these fine educators. Now let's take a look at this week's community calendar. This Friday, February 13th, the movie Valentine's Day will be showing at the Hamford Fox Theater. For tickets and information, visit Foxhamford.com. The Little Brick Theater also has some great events coming up. Be sure to check out their website at mtchamford.com. The Carnegie Museum of Kings County's 2026 exhibition, building Kings County opens on February 21st. Or more at Carnegie Museum of Kingscounty.org. The Hanford County Anime Comic Con will be held at the Hanford Fraternal Hall on Sunday, February 22nd. If you have an event coming up, large or small, and you'd like some help getting the word out, let's work together. Send your information to HanfordInsider at gmail.com. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a complete calendar of events. It's the most comprehensive community calendar available.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Caitlin, you have been promoting your Rider's Haven on social media, which is fantastic. We'll get into that in just a minute. But I was wondering if you could tell me, you know, being raised in Hanford, you had uh Hanford Schooling, you went through Hanford school. So uh can you give us a little bit about your background?

Community Calendar Highlights

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, I grew up in Hanford my whole life. I went to Woodrow, which that's where I found my love of reading and writing. Um, it was when we were taken to the library and were able to pick out whatever book we wanted. I picked up, I remember picking up um Vampire Academy from Rochelle Meade, and I fell in love with that series and that grew my love of reading. Eventually, my mom started getting into reading. So it's something that we did together. And I always loved telling stories. So anytime we had a uh something to write, um, and they wanted us to just share something in class. I loved that part of just storytelling. My mom would never get mad at me when I was little, when I would basically lie. But she was like, no, she's just telling stories because I would elaborate a lot. But she's like, no, you're gonna be an author one day. My mom was always telling me, you're gonna be an author one day, you're gonna write amazing books, you're gonna sell amazing books because of just how elaborate I would get. And I'd be like, Oh yeah, there were fairies that came. And she's like, I know you're lying, but I love the imagination.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Well, that's great. So um, you are you're actually currently a student, you're taking some classes, and uh you have had a lot of experience and obviously love of reading and writing. And when you uh started The Writers Haven, I understand you weren't exactly sure what it was going to be or who would even be interested. So tell us a little bit about the Writers' Haven and how it came about.

How Writer's Haven Began

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah, I was joining online groups on YouTube, um, sometimes Patreon, just to do some writing sprints with people online. Eventually I wanted to just bring it to the community. I was looking all the time to find anywhere that was having writer groups, um, even just, you know, little workshops, but I wasn't finding that local. I would find it in Fresno and Visalia, but I wanted something here. Um, so when I seen that gap, I really started thinking about it. Um, I fell in love with community. I wanted to bring the community together, especially since writing is so solitary. So eventually I was like, you know what? I'm doing it. Um, I try to think of a name and I was going through a list of names. But in my Google Docs, my drive name for my book that I'm currently writing is Bookhaven. So I was like, well, makes sense. Switch it over. Writers Haven, we're writing it. So I decided, you know what? I'm gonna launch it. Um, whoever shows up, shows up. I contacted one of the author that I knew locally, Garrett, and I was like, hey, I'm having this thing. Will you come to the first one and maybe speak? I don't know who's gonna be there. Could just be me and you. And he was it. So I made a flyer, posted on Facebook. Um, and I was like, Well, whoever comes, comes. And people signed up. Our first day we launched, we had 13 people, and now we do it every other Saturday, and we have about six to 10 people show up every time. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. Sometimes it's people who are repeats, and other times they one-time show, and I'm like, okay, like they got their writing in. Um, it's just really about being in community, having that time to write. Cause everyone says they'd never have time to write, but in that two-hour block, 10 to 12, you have that time. And I just want to make sure that people are being creative and having an open space to do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

And where do you hold this?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

I hold it at Starbucks, um, 550 West Lacey. They have a conference room in their uh seats, 15 to 18 people. So we just show up every other Saturday and we get to writing. It's a closed room. You don't hear, you don't hear much noise. But I do tell people if you want to listen to music while writing, because that's where I get in my zone, bring your AirPods, listen to some music. Um, we do ask that they turn off their music at Starbucks because it can be quite loud. Um, and they thankfully do it for us. So then we have our hot coffee, cozy room, we get to writing, and then we can chit chat.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

Yeah, that sounds great. I'm gonna put you on the spot just a little bit. And I want to hear your heart because in this day of social media and instant consumption and TikTok videos are 30 seconds. The focus that it takes to be a writer and the inspiration it takes to be a writer, how do you feel about what writing does for you personally? How does it allow you to grow?

Building A Local Writing Community

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Yeah. I've been specifically writing my book called uh Project Raven's Oath since I was 15. Um, it's changed over time completely. It's not what it was at first. Um, but writing for me, especially when I'm really stressed out with school, work, or anything in between. Um, it's something that everyone says to go exercise when they need to fix their mental health. Do that. But writing is that for me. Whatever stress I'm feeling, I can go put that into a fight scene in my book, and that's therapeutic for me. Um, I'm not a big fan of the whole TikTok thing. Um, I know that's my generation, but that's not something that I like to fall into because writing does take a lot of time. I it takes a lot of effort, editing, developing characters, uh, world building, that all takes time, especially if you're doing fantasy novels. You have to make your own magic system if that's something that's in your book. So for me, it's very therapeutic. I love living in my characters' worlds. And if you're not in the creative space and you don't know writing and getting into that space, you probably think I'm a little crazy. But I love falling in love with my characters. Each character is different, each one has a different attitude. Uh, they speak differently. It's such a beautiful thing to discover your characters through writing.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Certainly. You know, and it's a shame. Uh, I've worked in education for 36 years and I've seen the the Chromebooks, you know, and the teachers will sit down and uh every okay, open up your Chromebook and write this paragraph for everything. We don't have the art of handwriting as much anymore. So uh what's your feeling about handwriting versus you know just plopping it out on the computer?

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Yeah, most of my writing is done on the computer. Um, but right now I have s switched over to a notebook. Um, I'm making a journal for my main character to kind of journal whole thoughts, um, which of course people who don't are not in the writing space probably think that's crazy. But I think handwriting, you get to just experience it different. You remember a lot more what happens in the book when you're writing it by hand versus typing it out. Cause sometimes I have no idea what I just typed out and I have to go back and reread. And I was like, oh, that's that's a little odd. I think pen to paper is still the best way to write anything. Uh, most of my ideas come up during work hours, and I'm over here writing on a scratch people piece of paper and I throw it in my bag really quickly.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah, I'm fascinated uh with handwriting uh because uh as a historian, I'll go back and look at recipe books. I recently did an episode on uh Macanya's bakery and I was thumbing through some of the recipe books, but it was amazing uh how they added their own little uh spin on recipes, but the handwriting was so beautiful. Uh, you know, and it's just a lost art. So definitely that's great that uh, you know, people can have uh both of those experiences. I understand you also have a podcast as well, yeah?

Logistics: Where And How They Write

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yes, I have a podcast. It's called Garden of Honey. People can find it on Spotify or Apple uh podcast. It is a Christian podcast uh where I talk about God, prayer life. Uh right now I'm developing episodes based on um psychology, emotional regulation, trauma, and bringing God into the mix. So that's something that's coming up. Don't know exactly when, but it's gonna be there. So that's the podcast that I run. It's kind of just bringing hope and healing to anyone who's listening. That's my hope at least. It's about 15, 20 minutes per episode. So nothing too long.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Yeah. You're available, you've got an active social media account. You mentioned Facebook. I know you're also active on Instagram. Can you give us those usernames uh handles so that we can find you?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah, my Instagram is KDDonahue underscore rights, and my Facebook is Caitlin Donahue. You can usually just find me on my writers' Instagram. That's where I post all of our um writing meetings, anything extra that's coming up. Um eventually I will be hosting uh live sessions via Zoom or Google Meets. Um, that's probably gonna be happening after I graduate. Um, so sometime in May or June, that will be launching. So if you're not in the local area, but you still want to join our writing group, um, we'll probably have that on a Friday night. And so you can join in.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Yeah. And that's great. Uh for those of you not on social media, uh, Caitlin's given me permission to share her email address with you. So you can go ahead and email me at Hanfordinsider at gmail.com and uh ask for Caitlin's uh contact information. I'll be happy to share that with you so that maybe you can join her and her friends at the writers haven at the Starbucks at uh 11th and Lacey. Uh Caitlin, thank you for coming on the show. This has been so awesome. And uh I can't wait to see uh some of the work that your writers produce.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah, thank you so much. Yes, a lot of them are almost ready to um queer an agent. Some of them have published book six, some of them are newbie writers um doing draft one. So we're all in different stages, but um we would love to have anyone come by, even if it's just one session, we would love to have you. And now it's time for Hanford Insider Sports with Eric Bentley.

Why Writing Matters In A Short-Form World

Handwriting Versus Typing

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Playoff brackets will be released midweek with first round games this Friday and Saturday, but there's one more chance for teams to improve their resume in the regular season. Let's see where everyone stands with one game to play. We'll start with Sierra Pacific. The girls' basketball team sits at 15 and 12 overall, having won three in a row. A game up on Kerman for second place in the Tri-County Kings League. The Golden Bears will travel to play the Lions on Wednesday to close out their regular season. The Sierra Pacific Boys basketball team finished third in the Tri-County Kings League, and at 14-13 overall, the Golden Bears will look to snap a three-game skid in their season finale at Hanford West on Tuesday. The Sierra Pacific Boys Soccer team already clinched the Tri-County Sequoia League title with one game to play. With a 9-7-6 overall record, the Golden Bears will have their final regular season game at Hanford West on Wednesday. And the Sierra Pacific girls' soccer team sits at 8-7-5 overall and are all but guaranteed a third-place Tri-County Kings League finish as they'll host Kerman on Tuesday to close out their regular season. Over to Hanford High, where the boys' basketball team is 12-16 overall and a game back of Lamore and Taler Union for first place in the WIL. The Bullpubs will host Lamore on Tuesday. A win in that game, and a Taler Union loss to Tilarry Western could give the Bullpups a shot at a WIL title through tiebreakers. The Hanford High girls soccer team is still alive for a WIL title after taking down Tularie Western last week. With the Bullpubs and the Mustangs both at 8-1 in league action, Hanford High needs to beat Lamore on Tuesday and hope for a Tularary Western loss, or else the league title would come down to a tiebreaker. The Hanford High boys soccer team will more than likely be paying very close attention later this week to see if their name is called for playoff action at 5-6-7 overall. One final chance to make their case on the pitch Tuesday versus Lamore. And the Hanford High girls basketball team at 6-21 overall will close out their season this Tuesday at Lamore. Now for Hanford West, where the Huskies have struggled across the board over the winter. The girls' soccer team has won seven games this season and could play spoiler and make it eight on Tuesday against Washington Union. The girls basketball team picked up six wins on the year and will take on a manual in their season finale Wednesday. The boys' basketball team has won three games this year and will finish their season hosting Sierra Pacific on Tuesday. And the boys' soccer team has only picked up two wins on the year, closing out their year hosting Sierra Pacific on Wednesday. On next week's show, we'll have winter playoff updates, and two weeks from now we'll have our first baseball and softball updates. As always, if you have a score report or a team update from any level, please let us know by emailing HanfordInsider at gmail.com. I'm Eric Bentley, and this has been your Hanford Insider Sports Report.

Garden Of Honey Podcast

Find Caitlyn & Join Online Sessions

Inviting New Writers At All Stages

Hanford Insider Sports Roundup

Closing Notes & How To Support

SPEAKER_02 17:29

And that wraps things up for this week's show. If you enjoyed this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buymeacoffee.com forward slash Hanford Insider to make a donation. If you'd like to join the Hanford Insider email list, stop on my website at HanfordInsider.com to sign up for updates. You'll also get an exclusive copy of my newsletter in your inbox each week. I'll also need your help getting the word out about the show by liking and sharing on social media, or, like most people, just telling a friend. For more information about the show, you can find this podcast on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, and YouTube at Hanford Insider. If you have a show idea, be sure to email me at Hanford Insider at gmail.com and I'll look into it. Thanks for being part of the Hanford Insider Podcast family. Have a fantastic week. And that wraps things up for this week's show. Join me next week for a candid conversation with local rider Caitlin Donahue about the Rider's Haven project. If you enjoy this podcast and you'd like to show your support, you can go to buy mecopy.com slash Hamford Inspider to make a donation. If you'd like to join the Hamford Inspider email list, Hamfric Inspider.com to find a fruit. You can find this podcast on the Hamford Insider. Thanks for being a part of the Hamford Insider Podcast family.