Welcome back to Tuesday Debut after our little break for Halloweensie, everyone!

Before we jump in, I’d like to remind you that the voting is still open (until 5 PM Eastern today!) for you to choose your favorite finalist in the Halloweensie Contest! So if you haven’t voted yet, hop on over HERE and read the amazing finalists and cast your vote, and feel free to share the link with anyone you know who might enjoy reading and voting!

I also have a giveaway winner to announce! The winner of Stacy Jensen’s giveaway of a copy of BEFORE I LIVED HERE along with a bookplate, stickers, and bookmarks from before the Halloweensie Contest is. . .

barbse!!! (which I think is Barb Seregi?)

Congratulations, Barb! Lucky you!!! Please email me at your earliest convenience and I will organize getting your book to you!

And now we have a new giveaway for this week: a signed copy of THIS SUNDAY MY DADDY CAME TO CHURCH along with scratch and sniff bookmarks for children and a bookmark for adults from author Jeanine DeHoney! To put yourself in the running to be the randomly selected winner, please leave a comment below by Monday November 24th at 3 PM Eastern! 

And FINALLY I can introduce our debut-ess for today, the lovely and talented Jeanine DeHoney, debut author of THIS SUNDAY MY DADDY CAME TO CHURCH!

Title: This Sunday My Daddy Came To Church
Author: Jeanine DeHoney
Illustrator: Robert Paul Jr.
Publishing House: Sleeping Bear Press
Date of Publication: August 1, 2025
Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction
Age range of your book: 5 to 8. Grades K to 3

A son and his mother enjoy going to church but he wonders why his father never joins them. When he questions his mother why, she lovingly explains that there are different ways we all worship and not all of them are in a building.

SUSANNA: Welcome, Jeanine! Thank you so much for joining us today to share your publication wisdom! Where did the idea for this book come from?

JEANINE: Growing up my mother, sister and I always used to go to my grandmother’s church on Sunday. We dressed in our Sunday best and walked the few blocks with my grandmother to her church. As in my picture book I enjoyed going but wished my father would join us and he always had a delicious meal waiting for us when we got back home and jazz music playing on the radio. He played the saxophone and loved jazz. Though he didn’t join us in worshiping at church, he worshiped in his own way through his acts of service towards others and even in his quiet reflection. I wanted to share that, told through the eyes of my young character.

SUSANNA: Was the idea fully formed, or did it take some time to come together?  Did something specific trigger it? 

JEANINE: The idea came together pretty seamlessly when I decided I wanted to develop it into a children’s book.

SUSANNA: Talk about any aspects of your idea generating process that new/unpublished writers might find helpful.

JEANINE: My ideas usually come from being a mother, a grandmother, and also having worked in early childhood for over twenty years. Children see the magic in the world, and tap into that magic often even when the world is full of hues of grays. I try to do the same, so I love eavesdropping on the conversations of young children because observing them even doing the most simplistic or miniscule things can stir my imagination and plant a seed for a story.   

SUSANNA: How long did it take you to write this book?

JEANINE: Not long. I think I wrote it within two weeks. It is definitely not the norm when writing but for this book it was. When I get an idea about a story and it is constantly nudging me to get it down on paper, I usually listen. But I also of lately have been adhering to the  principle of giving myself grace. We writers can be very hard on ourselves especially if our words aren’t forthcoming or we feel we should be at a certain level of success. Grace removes that pressure and allows us to exhale and trust the process even if its slow-going.

SUSANNA: Did you go through many revisions?

JEANINE: I didn’t go through many revisions. There was one rewrite which only focused on a small section of the manuscript concerning the father in the story before it went to acquisitions.

SUSANNA: When did you know your manuscript was ready for submission?

JEANINE: After I did the rewrite and read it aloud a few times, I felt it was submission ready.

SUSANNA: When and how did you submit?

JEANINE: I first entered my manuscript, This Sunday My Daddy Came To Church, in Sleeping Bear Press’s Own Voices Own Stories Contest. My manuscript was chosen as a 2022 Honor Award Winner and part of the prize package was an editorial consultation. After the consultation I started working with their Senior Children’s Editor, Barb McNally. She was  super wonderful to work with and saw my vision from the start and didn’t lead me in a direction I didn’t want to go as far as the narrative. I currently don’t have an agent but am actively querying agents.

Jeanine’s work space

SUSANNA: How long after you found out about your book going to acquisitions (if you did) or after you submitted were you told it was a “yes”?

JEANINE: It went to acquisitions in December of 2022 and I received an email that they loved my rewrite in April of 2023 and a contract was offered.

SUSANNA: When did you get “the call”, which these days is more likely to be “the email”?  (Best moment ever! ) and how did you celebrate (if you care to share 😊)

JEANINE: I received an email offering me a contract after my rewrite in April of 2023!

My granddaughters were visiting and I started dancing with them and my husband and then called my adult children and my sister. We celebrated by going to a trampoline park and getting Crumbl cookies. I did a small rewrite but no major changes had to be made. I knew through my editor it may take a while to hear from acquisitions, so I busied myself with other writing projects, and of course life in general, kept me from constantly checking my e-mails for any updates

SUSANNA: How long was it between getting your offer and getting your contract to sign?

JEANINE: I received my contract from Sleeping Bear Press in June of 2023.  

SUSANNA: Was the contract what you expected in terms of advance, royalty percentage, publication timeline, author copies etc.?

JEANINE: I looked at information about contracts online and knew my contract and advance were pretty standard. I received 20 author copies.

SUSANNA: Can you tell us a little about the editorial process?

JEANINE: My editor and I seemed to be in synch with all of the ideas to bring this book to life. We worked on 3 drafts and the changes were pretty minor. She explained what would work better, etc.  

SUSANNA: What was your experience of the illustration process like?

JEANINE: I was able to see the sketches by illustrator Robert Paul Jr. on October 9, 2024.

His art captured every scene perfectly even before I saw them in color, capturing not only the main characters expressions as I imagined but also a diverse neighborhood and church congregation on a beautiful Sunday morning. He is a talented illustrator, so I felt extremely fortunate to have him illustrate my debut picture book.  I didn’t include any art notes with my manuscript; Robert saw my vision.

SUSANNA: Did you get to see advance reviews from Kirkus, SLJ, etc? What was that like?

JEANINE: Yes, Sleeping Bear Press’s Marketing and Publicity Coordinator, Shelby Jenkins, sent me an advance review of Kirkus and it indeed made a wide smile spread across my face to be recognized by Kirkus for my very first picture book.  

SUSANNA: How long did it take from offer to having the first copy in your hand?

JEANINE: I received the first copy of my book on June 2025. I have to admit I had to wipe away  grateful tears and only regret my parents, whom I dedicated the book to, not being here today to hold a copy but I know they would be ecstatic. I do not have any information regarding the print run.

SUSANNA: What kind of marketing and promotion has your publisher done for this book?

JEANINE: They have reached out to reviewers, influencers and we will also be doing book tours and I’m sure are doing so much more behind the scenes. The illustrator, Robert Paul Jr. created a beautiful book trailer and the art director of Sleeping Bear Press created a stained-glass coloring activity page to download that I suggested. As a former art enrichment teacher, I am pleased to have that to offer to children to color and to inspire them to create their own.

SUSANNA: Describe any marketing/promotion you did for this book.

JEANINE: I have reached out to magazines, homeschooling parents and influencers and bloggers about interviews or writing guest posts, and also popular parenting and family book clubs.

SUSANNA: How long was it between the time you started writing seriously and the time you sold your first picture book?

JEANINE: I declared I was going to be a writer at the age of seven. When I became an adult and started writing seriously, I had my first nonfiction essay published in a romance magazine in 1994. That encouraged me to keep writing and submitting, which I did, in all genres. Although I have published stories in children’s magazines such as Skipping Stones,  The Children’s Ark, and Australia’s The School Magazine, my first picture book wasn’t published until the midseason of my life. It just shows it’s never too late to realize a dream if you don’t give up on it.  

SUSANNA: What is the most important/helpful thing you learned on your way to publication? Or what is your most helpful piece of advice for up-and-coming writers?

JEANINE: I learned and I have been saying this a lot when asked about my writing and this debut picture book, to write the story that tugs on your heart, the one that won’t let you sleep until you get it down on paper.  

SUSANNA: Anything else you’d like to share about your book’s journey from inspiration to publication?

JEANINE: I’ve always wanted to write a children’s picture book. I didn’t know what to expect and have to admit this journey was a bit intimidating. But here I am, and you can be here too, so always believe in your voice and how it is so needed to help children and families laugh, cry, heal, love, learn, and be hopeful. We need that now more than ever.

SUSANNA: Thank you so much for taking the time to participate in this series and paying it forward to other writers, Jeanine! We so appreciate the opportunity to learn from your experience, and we wish you all the very best with this and future titles!

Readers, if you have questions for Jeanine, please post them in the comments below and if she has time I’m sure she’ll respond! And remember, your comment by Monday November 24th at 3 PM Eastern puts you in the running to be the randomly selected winner of a signed copy of THIS SUNDAY MY DADDY CAME TO CHURCH along with scratch and sniff bookmarks for children and a bookmark for adults from author Jeanine DeHoney!

Author Jeanine DeHoney (who enjoys a snack of kettle popcorn and Matcha Lattes 😊)

(Jeanine’s website and social media handles have not been omitted – she does not currently maintain an online presence.)

You may purchase Jeanine’s book at:
(all links below are book-specific)

Indiebound/Bookshop.org
Amazon
Barnes&Noble

We can help our debut authors successfully launch their careers by:

– purchasing their books

– recommending their books to friends and family

– recommending their books to our children’s teachers and librarians

– recommending their books to our local libraries and bookstores

– suggesting them as visiting authors at our children’s schools and our local libraries

– sharing their books on social media

– reviewing their books on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other sites where people go to learn about books.

Thank you all for stopping by to read today!  Have a lovely, inspiration-filled Tuesday!  Maybe today is the day you’ll write your debut picture book 😊

Missed any previous Tuesday Debuts?  Check them out HERE!