Block is a Los Angeles writer of over 32 novels, including Weetzie Bat, The Rose and the Beast, The Hanged Man, Wasteland, I Was a Teenage Fairy, and Pink Smog. She has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, and her work has been translated into many languages. Her latest novel, The Elementals, published by St. Martin's Press, is available now.

"The reason Weetzie Bat hated high school was because no one understood. They didn't even realize where they were living. They didn't care that Marilyn's prints were practically in their backyard at Graumann's; that you could buy tomahawks and plastic palm tree wallets at Farmer's Market, and the wildest, cheapest cheese and bean and hot dog and pastrami burritos at Oki Dogs; that the waitresses wore skates at the Jetson-style Tiny Naylor's; that there was a fountain that turned tropical soda-pop colors, and a canyon where Jim Morrison and Houdini used to live, and all-night potato knishes at Canter's, and not too far away was Venice, with columns, and canals, even, like the real Venice but maybe cooler because of the surfers. There was no one who cared. Until Dirk."

— Francecsa Lia Block, Weetzie Bat