John Hostler
John Hostler has survived comfortably on magicdom's periphery since the late 1970's. While material developed in his early teens found its way to a one-man Parade in Linking Ring magazine, it wasn't until Jerry Mentzer's Card File II that Hostler's magic appeared in a standalone publication. The controversial Rauschenberg Effect arrived in 2008, followed by more e-publications en route to the hardback Magnum Opossum collection in 2016. Then more paperback and privately-circulated manuscripts, followed by his second hardcover collection (Sleightly Hopped) in 2023. Hostler's writing, plots, technique, and scripting routinely swerve from the beaten path, with a straightforward (and uncompromising) philosophical through-line: Astonishment at any cost.
