Fluke Family Fortune — Robert A. Erickson

Fluke Family Fortune sets the stage for the comical misadventures of Maynerd Fluke Dumsted who sets out to find his family fortune hidden somewhere in the cursed kingdom of Gnat in order to win the heart of his shrewish lady love, Sue Tew, but that task proves to be more trouble than he anticipates. A sometimes well-meaning ghost gnome tags along for laughs, but his selfish machinations often mean more trouble for Maynerd. Other friends join the fun, such as the lovable five-year-old orphan Dandy May, who cavorts with dandelion fairies; the head-bashing ogress Grissel, who hates songs sung about her; an ineffectual thousand-year-old madman; a retired clodhopper named Sam Simple and his fun loving mule, Jazibell. A family curse and the grandiose schemes of the brigand King Kryan Kruke to transform him into the new national hero, in order to reunite the four scattered kingdoms of the land of Gnaught, further complicates Maynerd's plans to locate the family fortune.