Born and bred Lutheran, Fiorella doesn't talk about God much, but she does think about him/her/it a lot.  Like right now, when she has the possibility of a wonderful new career in front of her.  But this rosy future of doing wants she wants to do, writing romances that give women templates of hope, would never have been possible if she hadn't been bounced out of her last job.

Hearing that she wasn't wanted around the English department anymore was quite a shock to Fio.  She'd never been dismissed from a teaching position before.  In fact, her department chairs usually valued her.  And Fio's students gave her rave reviews--well, at least after her first couple years, when she got her head straight and her feet on the ground.

Oops, she did lose her first teaching job, at UT, but so did every other "lecturer," and she was one of the last to go.  But that wasn't personal.

This last time  it was personal.  Her sin?  Through the years,  Fio had put a great deal of thought into why she was teaching, what she was teaching, and how to teach it effectively, with the result that she was an unconventional teacher.  (Enter, Jack Black.)

Anyway, Fio was not only shocked, but heartbroken when she was dismissed--because what she liked best about teaching was the students.  However being kicked out of her cozy office cleared the way for her to write full-time, or at least as full-time as one can while coping with house, husband, dog, and all the accouterments of life. And now, five years later, she realizes getting the axe was a blessing.

Thank you, God.