Dean is from Bridgeport, West Virginia and lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife, two children and giant, fluffy Sheepadoodle. A graphic design major, Dean had a respectable, twenty-plus year career in advertising when, in the fall of 2012, while losing a battle with depression, he returned to his childhood love of art and started painting again. Since then, Dean has painted close to one hundred large-format paintings, has had his work displayed in numerous galleries, and has had his painting of beloved Cleveland street musician, Maurice Reedus Jr, used for the 2014 film documentary, The Saxman. If you’d like to see Dean’s artwork, you can do so at instagram.com/deanskinner.

In November of 2018, Dean went to 20Books Vegas, a yearly gathering of some of the publishing industry’s most notable self-published authors. Here, Dean was so moved and inspired by this talented group of people that three months later, he finished writing his first draft of Broken.