Abby Stein asked Lauren Blakely:

Hey Lauren! I've been looking forward to A Guy Walks Into My Bar for several months and am thrilled that it's out. I've downloaded the audiobook because I love Shane East and Joe Arden. I'm having a hard time reconciling Shane East's voice with comparisons to Michael B. Jordan and Idris Elba. With East and Arden being part of the inspiration for the book why is Dean a person of color when he is voiced by a white man?

Lauren Blakely Hi Abby! That is a great question. I'm glad you asked, because it gives me an opportunity to address the mistake I made. I should have done things differently and I didn't understand that earlier this year when I cast and planned this book, but I understand that now.

I'll explain.

I addressed this in Aural Fixation on FB recently and want to share this with you too - in the past I did color blind casting in my multicasts. I cast black actors for white parts and asian characters and occasionally cast white actors in black roles as part of my prior focus on casting purely by voice, not by color of character. Because of that, I thought - mistakenly - that it was best to continue the actor with the character and since Shane had voiced the supporting character of Dean in Birthday Suit, who in that story was the hero's witty, British best friend, I thought I needed to continue the casting that way.

I understand now that that is not the best approach.

Going forward, I am personally committed to a more conscious and thoughtful casting approach. Any heroes or heroines of color or supporting characters of color in multicasts will ONLY be cast with narrators of color...Likewise, I am casting narrators of color to play some lead and some supporting characters of all colors in future books...I am actively seeking out talent, and have made some more thoughtful hires for upcoming books.

I am working to present more diverse characters in my stories and to cast appropriately in the way that I now understand they should be cast.

With this title, it was conceived as a project for Joe and Shane, and I made the decisions before I was fully aware and fully educated. Given that this was intended as a project for them, if I could go back in time, I would quite simply have written a parallel/similar story rather than trying to write the existing character of Dean's story. What I mean is, I would have simply written the story of these two men as they are, but make the British man another bartender who was not in another book and write him as white.
I can't do that, but what I can do is be more thoughtful and sensitive going forward and that is my goal and my intention. And to that end, I'm working to make sure that I am aware of race-appropriate casting for leading roles, and that I am hiring both the performers I have worked with in the past, as well as performers of color.

Thank you for asking.

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