Mark,
I just got through reading "The Forging of the Sword" and thought I'd mention here that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can certainly see how you injected some of your own life experience into Calvyn's and it worked so very well.
There was one part in it that I'm sure Pete Jackson pinched for the Two Towers (though you wrote this way before the film).
Anyway, I'm off to Amazon to order part 2... Can't wait much longer to find out what Jenna's up to.