For her alternate career, Ian's a SF writer and fan. When my husband and I wanted to use a piece she wrote in the program book for ConJose, the Worldcon we helped run, we contacted her about it.
She was pleased to let us use the piece. We met her at the convention and invited her to a private room party we threw the first night. She showed up just in time for it to be us, her, and two other people.
The other two were fans of hers and folk in general. We had a great chat, I taught her how to do a silly hand move, and it was otherwise just awesome hanging out over chocolate and whisky.