“How to Love Bi/Pan Characters (in erotica and romance)” with Cecilia Tan
Register now for Cecilia Tan’s “How to Love Bi/Pan Characters (in erotica and romance)” workshop scheduled for September 25, 2025 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT. Free for Passionate Ink Members/$45 for non-members. Live presentation will be recorded. 
Whether your characters steered you into writing a menage you didn’t expect or whether you want to include more bisexual or pansexual characters because the B in LGBTQ seems underrepresented, this class will help authors craft bisexual and pansexual characters who are believable, relatable, and three-dimensional, rather than stereotypes or saddled with cliches. Whenever we eroticize a character, there’s a danger we could be fetishizing or causing harm to realpeople who share characteristics with that character. In this class, we’ll discuss some of the common bi stereotypes and how to apply tropes in ways that can celebrate and represent rather than perpetuate harm. There’s no single “right way” to write a bisexual, just as there’s no “right way” to BE bisexual, but we’ll present modes of thinking (as well as pitfalls) that will enrich bi and pan portrayals in romance and erotic fiction.
Cecilia Tan has been called “simply one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature” by Susie Bright, and “science fiction’s premiere pornographer” by Walter Jon Williams. She has been a longtime activist and organizer in the bi and BDSM communities and is a winner of the RT (Romantic Times) Lifetime Achievement Award. She holds a Masters in Professional Writing and Publishing and founded Circlet Press, Inc., for whom she edited over 100 anthologies of fiction. Her own books include the ground-breaking erotic sf/fantasy short story collections Black Feathers (HarperCollins) and White Flames (Running Press), and the Magic University series (Riverdale Avenue Books). Her short stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Absolute Magnitude, Strange Horizons, and tons of other places. She was inducted into the Saints & Sinners LGBT Writers Hall of Fame in 2015.