Why does music play such a strong role in your work?

In so many parallel worlds, I’m a composer rather than a writer. There was a point in my mid-twenties where I could have gone either way, but I knew that neither of my arts could live while the other survived. So I looked at my possible futures and thought about how I could offer the world the most good. The wind blew from the east that day, and I chose writing.

That said, my passion for music hasn’t diminished. You can see it in characters like Taylor and Marty and Jude. I give them that par...