30 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {punchline} billionaires controlling an endless loop of wealth. But that doesn’t stop him from falling for ultra-rich socialite and internet icon Chloe. Stranger still, she falls for Shane. “Their relationship is meant to represent the political polarization in our country,” Mike explains. Though from disparate worlds, Shane and Chloe have something in common: both thrive on audience reaction and spin out when that attention is cut off. “Young people are living in this day-to-day world online, where they feel like they need to be a celebrity or an Instagram influencer and have millions of followers in order to have selfworth,” Mike observes. “We need to find a new basis for self-esteem.” In his latest page-turner, Mike weaves in dashcam footage and wiretap transcripts, a grand jury Mike Trigg looks like any other local relaxing at Portola Valley’s idyllic Alpine Inn. He doesn’t seem like a man who would dream up a deadly San Francisco riot or a high-profile kidnapping. And yet he is the imaginative force behind Shane Stoller, the catalyst character in Burner, his latest novel. Debunking the “write what you know” adage, Mike says he shares little in common with any of his new book’s main characters: an imprisoned cyber vigilante whose followers are responsible for 12 deaths; his defense attorney; and a kidnapped internet icon. Even so, the full-time author and former CEO of Palo Alto-based software development company Rustle has plenty to say about tech’s impact on current socio-political tensions and mental health. And it’s generating plenty of grist for his plot-twisting mill. In Burner, hacker, blogger and agitator Shane hates the
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