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Introducing my debut novel, Dog's Breakfast, a diplomatic tour de farce.
 
You've heard about the Deep State? Dog's Breakfast will plunge you into the Shallow State.
 
Release date: January 21, 2025, from Willow River Press, an imprint of Between the Lines Publishing, of Roseville, Minnesota
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About
About
I grew up in a family of five kids in Des Plaines, Illinois, and Racine, Wisconsin. I trace my deep-seated authorial ambitions to my dad’s sharp wit and my mom’s love of reading and her encouragement of all my creative endeavors. How I wish I could have put my debut novel in their hands. They would have been their version of totally stoked.

With a why-not-both mindset, I majored in philosophy and economics at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. A couple years after graduating, I joined the U.S. Department of State as a foreign service officer. I completed tours of duty in our embassies in Santo Domingo, Tokyo (twice), Moscow, and Skopje, as well as a short stint in Havana. Along the way I learned Spanish, Japanese, Russian, and Macedonian. I took great pride in representing our country as a diplomat.
 
Spinning outlandish bedtime yarns for my two sons in their earliest years honed my storytelling. They will always be my ideal audience.

In addition to writing novels, I contribute to various humor publications. I also dabble in cartooning, sometimes to illustrate my articles. See below for more info and a few enticing examples. 

I live in the DC area. When not writing or drawing, I enjoy tennis, pick-up soccer, low-stakes poker, growing tomatoes, and partaking of the area’s cultural and natural bounty, by which of course I primarily mean local craft beers. 
Dog's Breakfast
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DOG'S BREAKFAST

 

noun (slang): a disorderly situation; a complete mess.
Intrigue erupts in a backwater U.S. embassy when Andy Pulano, the second-in-command, becomes fed up with being treated with less respect than the ambassador’s prized Labrador. Craving career advancement, Andy sets out to undermine his boss by instigating a series of crises in their host country of Vodania, which hardly needs any outside help in falling apart. After someone attempts to poison the Labrador, Andy secretly assigns Tara Zadani, a newly-arrived junior officer, to investigate. Never having signed up to be a doggie detective, Tara suspects she’s been set up to fail. If so, Andy just invited the wrong girl to the prom. His machinations create enough chaos to put the ambassador on the verge of being sent home in disgrace. Then Tara makes a discovery which puts Andy’s entire scheme–and his fevered hopes for a promotion–at risk.
 
Cartoons

Cartoons

PRESS

“Political chaos at its best. Author Tom Navratil creates a story that illuminates one man’s agenda to get himself to the top using unorthodox practices, causing him to step into dangerous territory. The fine details, strong characters, and multiple storylines that merge make this book one that readers will want to stay until the end for.” Kathryn Dare, Manhattan Book Review

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