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Michael Pyle

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Michael Pyle is an American novelist whose fiction explores identity, resilience, and the lasting impact of history on personal lives. Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, he brings an authentic regional voice shaped by deep roots in the region he grew up in and a lifelong engagement with language, law, and culture. He holds bachelor’s, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Florida.

He was a professor of English as a second language also at the University of Florida and authored Cliffs TOEFL Preparation Guide and two additional ESL textbooks for Cliffs Notes Inc. and its successors, which sold worldwide for over twenty years.

In 2012, Pyle published his debut historical novel, White Sugar, Brown Sugar, a coming-of-age story set in 1950s and 1960s Florida that confronts racial tension, addiction, and recovery. The novel explores the loss of innocence and the hard-won emergence of hope, resilience, and friendship. He had begun writing the novel as a teenager, presented excerpts of it while studying fiction writing at the University of Florida, and published it forty years later. It was named the second-place winner of ‘Readers’ Choice: The Best Books of 2013’ by The Wall Street Journal and was a finalist in the Inspirational Fiction category of the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards, sponsored by American Book Fest.

He followed this work with Cuban Roots (2018), a historically grounded novel that blends history, family, and political consequence, following extensive research and interviews conducted in both the United States and Cuba. He presented the text twice at the Institute of Cuban History in Havana, Cuba.
After a 40-year legal career and retiring from the practice of law in 2023, Pyle has devoted himself fully to writing general fiction, following his dream of relaying social, racial and cultural themes.

In November of 2025, Pyle has published his third novel, Giga Trouble, a cybercrime novel, through his independent company, Armstrong Media Group, LLC, which also published his other novels and works of some other authors. Giga Trouble continues to expand on his themes, featuring interconnected characters and family members from his earlier novels, as well as returning to Cuba for an international setting.

“A swift, outlandish adventure both on and off the water that keeps the reader guessing.”
– Kirkus Reviews

GIGA TROUBLE Cover
THRILLERS

GIGA TROUBLE

BY Michael Pyle

A modern tech thriller about a secretive company and its malicious intentions from author Pyle.

The year is 2020. Michele Morales works for an international company called Giga-BATS. Rather unexpectedly, when Michele and her colleagues show up for work one day, they are told they are having a company meeting offsite; the meeting is to take place on the company yacht Giga Blue. This is Miami, so yachts are commonplace, but a surprise compulsory company meeting on a boat is unprecedented—Michele is concerned. As the yacht sets sail, she jumps ship and is picked up by a small speedboat. Soon, she is in contact with her father, an attorney named Franklin Morales. Franklin agrees that the whole thing is highly suspicious. Meanwhile, back on Giga Blue, Michele’s friends Kim and Tad are being forced to participate in nefarious internet schemes, “using private information that the company had acquired for inappropriate purposes.” It occurs to Tad that “All he could do was pray that” somehow, he’d “find a way out of this labyrinth of lies and corruption before it consumed him entirely.” The story’s premise is bizarre; a company kidnapping staff and forcing them to work on things like malware feels over-the-top. Nevertheless, readers will be intrigued to discover where this is all going, particularly as events move to Cuba and the technological aspects of the plot intensify. The narrative moves quickly and builds anticipation effectively; however, while the story itself is suspenseful, the dialogue sometimes fails to heighten tension. For instance, when an official blandly states, “There are many people in danger” regarding the kidnapping situation, or mentions that the victims may be forced to “perform acts that impose a serious threat to the safety of the United States,” this simply repeats information the reader already knows. Still, there are several compelling twists in store before the final page.

A swift, outlandish adventure both on and off the water that keeps the reader guessing.

Pub Date:

Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2025

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Awards, Press & Interests

Day job

Retired Attorney, Fiction Writer

Favorite author

Ernest Hemingway

Favorite book

1984

Favorite line from a book

"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history".

Hometown

Daytona Beach

Passion in life

Being outdoors, walking on the beach, writing

White Sugar, Brown Sugar: Readers Choice: The Best Books of 2013 by the Wall Street Journal (#2), 2013

White Sugar, Brown Sugar: American Legacy Book Awards. Finalist (Inspirational Fiction), 2024

Link to Press Release: "Michael Pyle’s White Sugar, Brown Sugar Honored as Finalist in the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards", 2024

ADDITIONAL WORKS AVAILABLE

Cuban Roots

'Cuban Roots’ is a historical novel, based mostly in Cuba and also in Florida, including Daytona Beach. Luis Morales is an eighty-four year old lawyer, born in Cuba, living in Miami. He regularly travels to Cuba to deliver funds inherited by Cubans. He gives an interview to a reporter regarding his interpretation of the feeling of the people living on the island about Fidel Castro’s death, and some strongly criticize his words. After being hounded and attacked, he suffers a medical crisis, and while seemingly unconscious, relives the good and bad experiences of his youth in the country of his birth, the country that he loves, Cuba.  Michael A. Pyle, author of ‘White Sugar, Brown Sugar’, began writing Cuban Roots over thirty years ago. He has traveled all over Cuba numerous times, interviewing people, visiting museum and performing research. Senior officers of the Institute of Cuban History in Havana, Cuba have read the manuscript and found the historical references credible. The Institute has invited him twice to present the book to its annual international symposium.

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White Sugar, Brown Sugar

White Sugar, Brown Sugar is a novel set in Daytona Beach, Florida. An upper middle-class white boy from the peninsula, or beach-side, of the Inland Waterway, and a black boy of lesser means, who lives west of the railroad tracks, where Blacks (who were called Negroes and other names at the time) were required to live, become good friends, in spite of the racial separation in effect in the 60's in the south. David "Jude" Armstrong and Roosevelt Harris meet at a basin of a yacht club. Jude, the white boy, fishes from the docks, where stately boats stand. Roosevelt, the black boy, and his family, fish with cane poles on the wall next to the street. The boys meet various times over the years. The tranquility of Jude Armstrong's safe, upper middle-class white world ends when his alcoholic mother tosses his father out of the house. Roosevelt Harris's life has never been tranquil. He has grown up with his grandparents. He has never known a father, and his mother is a heroin addict who disappears for weeks at a time, and is incarcerated frequently. Neither boy understands the racial issues of the time. Both boys fully understand the misery and difficulties that arise from abuse of alcohol and drugs, and both swear they will never end up in that situation, yet they both follow the same path. Eventually, Jude's father, Lansing Armstrong, an attorney, helps the boys escape criminal prosecution for drug-related crimes, and becomes a guiding light for both boys. Roosevelt grasps sobriety much sooner and easier than Jude does. As the founder of a successful restaurant business, he eventually places both Roosevelt and Jude in control of the business. Jude and Roosevelt struggle to overcome their prior problems, and eventually lead normal and successful lives. White Sugar, Brown Sugar follows their loss of innocence, submergence to the depths of desperation and eventual emergence as recovering adults. It is a story of deep friendship, hope, strength, and inspiration.
Published: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 979-8350934052

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