Over the centuries, Frank Bittinger has experienced many lives. In this incarnation, Mr. Bittinger lives and writes in Western Maryland , sharing his home with a menagerie of pets, several alternate personalities, and the occasional ghost. He enjoys working as a cosmetologist in Cumberland and can be emailed at lairofthescarabae@hotmail.com .

Since he is eccentric, he has been known to be interested in books, frogs, and Christmas trees, amassing large collections of each—sometimes combining his interests, like the Christmas tree decorated entirely with frog ornaments and stuffed animals. And he also collects books on Dianetics and Scientology.

Ancient Egypt holds a fascination for him; he has a scarab beetle tattoo between his shoulder blades as well as a collection of Egyptian items in his bedroom and a somewhat large collection of books on Egypt.

He enjoys creating stories for his fans to read, saying, “I am a writer, a novelist. I write in the Gothic horror tradition: dark and moody. Someone once complimented me by saying my second book is ‘Sleek, sinister, and seductive.' I very much enjoyed hearing that.

"I've also been told I am across between Clive Barker and Anne Rice. A compliment, indeed, considering these are two legends of the craft.”

Frank believes writing is an art form, whether the writing is great literature or his own writing which he refers to as ‘schlock horror.'

“L. Ron Hubbard said ‘The artist injects the spirit of life into a culture' as well as ‘A culture is only as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamed by artists.' And I firmly agree. You cannot underestimate how important art is to a culture, to a civilization; without artists and art, a civilization cannot exist—it will wither and die.”

Part of the proceeds from the sales of his novels go toward helping find homes for abused, unwanted, or neglected animals. Over the years, he has been able to find homes for cats, dogs, lizards, birds, squirrels, mice, and hamsters, among others like goats and even fish.