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Last week Globe Washington correspondent John Ibbitson won the 2008 Governor-General's Literary Award for his novel The Landing, deemed by a three-member jury to be the best children's book (text) published in Canada this year.

The jury lauded Mr. Ibbitson's story, about a violinist growing up in Ontario's Muskoka region during the Great Depression, for being "as timeless as the music and the adolescent imagination that lie at its centre."

This is first time Mr. Ibbitson has received the award in this catagory, although it is the second time he has been nominated for a children's book, that time for his 1991 novel 1812: Jeremy's War.

We're pleased, in light of Mr. Ibbitson's award, that he is able to take questions from readers, not about politics as he usually does, but about writing and his books. His answers are posted below.

Mr. Ibbitson has lived numerous writing lives, including those of playwright, novelist and journalist.

He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a masters degree in journalism, and joined The Ottawa Citizen as a rather aged cub reporter. He worked as a reporter, columnist and Queen's Park correspondent for Southam papers until 1999, when he joined The Globe and Mail as Queen's Park columnist, subsequently serving as the paper's Washington Bureau Chief, then as its Canadian political affairs columnist, based in Ottawa.

He recently returned to Washington, where he ranges far and wide surveying the American landscape.

Outside journalism, his recent writing has focused on political analysis, with Promised Land: Inside the Mike Harris Revolution (Prentice Hall, 1997) and Loyal No More: Ontario's Struggle for a Separate Destiny (HarperCollins, 2001).

Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. HTML is not allowed. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.

Sandra Gulland from Canada: Dear John, Congratulations! As your long-long-ago former editor, I am not surprised, but enormously pleased. My question is this: What editorial comment or suggestion had the most impact on The Landing? Sincerely, Sandra

John Ibbitson: Thanks so much, Sandra. You, more than most, appreciate the role of the editor in the writing process. Sheila Barry, who edited The Landing, exercised a gentle hand. But she did insist that there was a scene missing -- something that should appear late in the book, when Ben contemplates the future that seems to be receding beyond reach. I agreed, and wrote a scene in a boat between Ben and his best friend, as they fish for pickeral and Ben confesses his frustration.

It is, for my money, one of the best moments in the book, and I have Sheila to thank for it, as for so much else.

Lk from Calgary: Mr. Ibbitson, I admire the work you do for The Globe, but I have to admit I didn't realize you were also writing fiction for young adults. So I'm curious now, at what age did you first start writing fiction?

John Ibbitson: I wrote my first play when I was 17, and my first young-adult text when I was in my early 30s.

Political writing then trumped fiction for many years. It was a joy to go back to the form.

Journalism is my life, but I was a writer before I was a reporter, and it is deeply gratifying that I am able to continue to work in both forms.

Paul Harbridge from Toronto: John, your writing style as a journalist is not at all like the prose of The Landing. Do you put the words down differenlty? Do you enter into a different frame of mind? Could you comment on the difference between being a journalist and a novelist. Congratulations on your lovely book. Franklin

John Ibbitson: Hello again, Paul. This is turning into a seminar on editing. But it is indeed the editor whose job it is to guide the writer and preserve and protect his voice, whether it is the voice of a foreign correspondent covering a presidential election, or a writer of young-adult fiction struggling to get a story down. I don't think of myself as having different voices; I just write what I write. But I would write in all forms badly, were it not for the wiser minds who look over my shoulder and who sometimes guide my pen.

Jennifer from Halifax: Why do you like writing fiction for young adults and not adults?

Christine Diemert, globeandmail.com: Hi John, I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to ask something I'm sure many of us wonder … how do you find time to write fiction and do all the other work you do for The Globe?

John Ibbitson: To Jennifer and Chris: When I started writing fiction in mid '80s, the young-adult genre appealed to me because, in part, those were the years when I fell in love with reading, and it was tremendously appealing to write for readers who are at that stage of discovering.

Reading is still a joy, as it is for all of us who love to read, but eventually we lose the sense of wonder. To write for those who are just learing to fall in love with books is a joy.

As for finding the time, it's easy. Just don't take weekends or vacations.