"Tako"

I've been asked (and even taken some criticism) over choosing to name one of the main characters "Tako". Well, let me explain where that name comes from.

In part, my son's gaming characters always had a 'taco-based' name (e.g., Tacomaster, Tacovendor, etc ) but he spelled it in the traditional way. While he LOVED tacos, the last 2 letters of his first name and the first 2 letters of his last name spelled "TaCo" as well. I tweaked it because I just tweaked the last 4 letters of his first name, Dakota. Mostly I did this so his name in the book wasn't the same as the food because the nuances of "last 2, first 2" wouldn't be easily conveyed.

So, for better or worse, I just mixed the last 4 letters of his first name, DaKOTA and it became Tako. :)