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Category Archive: PS Collectors' Corner
Mark Chadbourne says: sf makes you crazy
Posted by Paul Raven on August 13th, 2008 at 9:24
Novelist Mark Chadbourne has a guest post over at the Pyr-o-mania blog where he fingers fans of speculative fiction for being… well, for being a little unhinged by comparison to normal people.
This is no “fans are slans!” argument, though; Chadbourne points out that if you stumble across science fiction at the right age, it does something transformative to you. The end result being that you’ll spend the rest of your life doing things that won’t make any sense to people without the same affliction.
Once you’ve tasted it, your brain is screwed and you’re hooked for life. Then you spend the rest of your days trying to hang on to the feeling, recapture it, buy it and bottle it – even if it means spending a small fortune on a limited edition book, or going to see movies that everyone tells you are bad, bad, bad…you know, just in case.
One of Chadbourne’s examples is that he’s considering buying PS Publishing’s special slipcased two-volume edition of Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, simply because he has such a soft spot for the book and its author. Of course, that’s not an easy decision… £375 isn’t cheap, but we like to think you’re getting something truly worth the price, considering the second volume contains every story ever set in Greentown – even the previously unpublished ones. Oh, and artwork like this:
Chadbourne says he’s starting a collection on his own behalf so he can afford it; you could always donate, or help him out by buying one of his novels. Alternatively, you could keep hold of your money in an effort to snap up a special edition Dandelion Wine for yourself…
[Disclosure: Mark Chadbourne is one of my clients.]
PS Current Catalogue and Forthcoming Titles Update
Posted by Darren on March 29th, 2008 at 17:00
We’ve been working away here at PS Towers to bring our Webstore catalogue and forthcoming title schedule for the rest of 2008 bang up-to-date.
Low Stock Warnings
The first change you’ll notice when checking the Current Catalogue page of the Webstore is the addition of a number of low and very low stock warnings.
Following our first ever sale last Autumn that ran through to the end of a very busy holiday season, we’ve carried out a full stock-check. As a result, a number of titles which are now sold out have been moved to the archive. In addition, any titles with between 11 and 20 copies in stock have been marked low stock and any title with 10 or fewer copies in stock has been marked very low stock.
So if there’s a title you’ve had your eye on for a while that’s now marked ‘very low’, you might want to get an order in sooner rather than later…
Forthcoming Schedule Update
We’ve also been through our schedule for the rest of 2008 with a fine-tooth comb and have made a few necessary adjustments. Thieving Fear by Ramsey Campbell has been brought forward and will now be published earlier than we were originally anticipating. Alas though, a few titles have suffered from what we in the trade technically term ’slippage’ for one reason or another and will now be published a little later than we originally hoped (although having said that, they may well end up being moved forward again… these things can happen when you’re an independent publisher).
- The Babylonian Trilogy by Sébastien Doubinsky
- The City in These Pages by John Grant
- Planet of Mystery by Terry Bisson
- Harsh Oases by Paul DiFilippo
- The Painting and the City by Robert Freeman Wexler
- The Book, The Writer, The Reader by Zoran Zivkovic
- Living With the Dead by Darrell Schweitzer
- The Song of Time by Iain R. MacLeod
- Camp Desolation and an Eschatology of Salt by Uncle River
- Blue Canoe by T.M. Wright
- The Witnesses Are Gone by Joel Lane
- Billy’s Book by Terry Bisson
- Counting Tadpoles by Uncle River
We’ve also added four new titles to the forthcoming titles page of the webstore, which of course means they’re now available to pre-order:
- The Pilo Family Circus (a Novel) by Will Elliott
- PS Showcase #3: Mad Scientist Meets Cannibal by Robert Jeschonek
- PS Showcase #4: Glyphotech by Mark Samuels
- Grazing the Long Acre (a Collection) by Gwyneth Jones
Please click the book title to visit the relevant catalogue page for more information.
If you have any questions about any of the information in this article, please get in touch via the Contact Page of the Webstore.
Out Now: ‘The Situation’ by Jeff VanderMeer
Posted by Darren on March 19th, 2008 at 19:20
Our limited edition of Jeff VanderMeer’s brand new chapbook novelette, The Situation is back from the printers, in-stock at our despatch warehouse and is shipping now to pre-order customers.
As you will probably have heard, we recently teamed up with Wired.com’s GeekDad blog to give away a pdf copy of the entire text of The Situation and if you’re interested in trying before you buy, that download is still available over at blog.wired.com/geekdad.
As a result of the coverage, the book has been selling very strongly indeed, particularly the 200-copy only signed, numbered, jacketed hardcover edition, so we’re really not kidding when we say that if you want to secure a copy you’ll need to get your order in fast!
And now, a quick note from our publisher, Peter Crowther:
It’s mea culpa time, folks. We’ve just noticed, with a fair degree of embarrassment, that the signing sheet for the limited edition of The Situation states that there will be ‘200 slipcased signed hardcovers of this book, plus 500 unsigned hardcovers’. Well, the truth is that we mixed up the text from a signing sheet for a different PS title, and the signed hardcovers will not be slipcased… just as it has said all along on the website.
Of course, right now, everyone is happy with that – nobody is expecting a slipcase – but, of course, as soon as the pre-ordered books start plopping onto hallway mats and into creaky old tin rfd mailboxes, everywhere from here (just a couple of streets away is a brand-new regular customer), to all over the USA, to Australia, to North Korea (I kid you not! PS straddles the globe…) then people are going to be phoning wondering where their darn slipcase is.
Well, now you know: there weren’t any. Looks like I ducked out of too many lectures on that ‘Publishing 101′ course! Note to self: must do better in future. Apologies for any confusion caused!
Best wishes
Contrite Crowther
Win a proof / ARC of ‘The Return of the Crimson Guard’ with Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist
Posted by Darren on March 16th, 2008 at 10:19
We’ve teamed up with top fantasy blogger Pat St Denis of the legendary Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist to give away one ultra-rare proof / advanced reading copy of our forthcoming Ian Cameron Esslemont novel, The Return of the Crimson Guard, sequel to his debut Night of Knives.
Both Night of Knives and Return of the Crimson Guard are set in the same world made hugely popular by Steven Erikson’s Malazan Books of the Fallen, which Esslemont and Erikson co-created.
Return of the Crimson Guard has such a huge page count that we’re publishing our limited, true first edition in a two-volume slipcased edition, priced £75.00 (£150.00 approx.) and proof copies will be incredibly rare, so make sure you enter the competition sooner rather than later…
Download Jeff VanderMeer’s ‘The Situation’, FREE, from Wired.com
Posted by Darren on March 5th, 2008 at 9:39
Canadian journalist Brad Moon has interviewed Jeff and Ann VanderMeer for Wired.com’s GeekDad blog and to mark the occasion, we’ve supplied a pdf copy of Jeff’s forthcoming chapbook / novelette, The Situation and made it available as a free download from the blog.wired.com/geekdad article.
That’s right folks, if you’d like to try before you buy, simply head on over and grab the pdf, then put the printer on or transfer the file to your e-reader of choice. Once you’re done, high-tail it over to the PS Webstore to place your pre-order; the book should be back from the printers and shipping at the end of the third week in March.
Quick word to the wise: we’re only printing 200 copies of the signed, numbered, jacketed hardcover edition and around a hundred of those are already accounted for by pre-order customers, so you may have to be quick to secure your copy.
Low-stock alert: Deluxe ‘Dandelion Wine’ down to a dozen…
Posted by Darren on February 12th, 2008 at 17:20
Just a quick note to say that, as of this morning, we have only twelve of the Deluxe, two-volume slipcased edition of Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine: 50th Anniversary Edition left in stock at PS Towers.
This top-level edition is presented in a two-volume, slipcased set along, which includes Dandelion Wine plus Summer Morning, Summer Night, featuring all of Ray Bradbury’s other Greentown, Illinois stories… some of which are previously unpublished.
This deluxe edition – and only this deluxe edition – is also signed by both Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, who has written the introduction. It’s priced at £375.00 ($750.00 approx.) and if you’d like to add this particular gem to your collection, you’ll need to be quick…
Copies of both the slipcased (£50.00 / $100.00 approx, signed by Ray Bradbury) and standard hardcover (£20.00 / $40.00 approx, unsigned) editions are still in stock as well.
‘Dandelion Wine’ is Lisa Tuttle’s Christmas Choice in The Times
Posted by Darren on December 13th, 2007 at 15:53
A great, big, Christmas “thank you!” to Lisa Tuttle, who picked our forthcoming (indeed, imminent!) 50th anniversary edition of Ray Bradbury’s wonderful coming-of-age tale Dandelion Wine as her Christmas Choice in the London Times last Friday.
Lisa says (and quite rightly): “Reading [Dandelion Wine] is like sipping a glass of that beverage, golden and warm, an old-fashioned summer captured in a bottle.”
We’re publishing in three states:
- Hardcover (500 copies) at £20 ($40 approx.) unsigned.
- Slipcased Hardcover (200 copies) at £50 ($100 approx.) signed by Ray Bradbury.
- Deluxe, Two-Volume Hardcover (100 copies) at £375 ($750 approx.) signed by Ray Bradbury and introducer Stephen King, and featuring a second volume of Ray Bradbury’s collected Greentown stories, Summer Morning, Summer Night.
Lisa says: “Boys and girls who have been especially good may want to ask Santa for the deluxe edition…” and who are we to argue with that? Although with the book not back from the printers quite yet, and Christmas last delivery dates being what they are, you might find Santa delivering sometime into the New Year… but the fat old elf will get there eventually!
Finished Cover: ‘The Saved’ by Joe Hill
Posted by Darren on November 23rd, 2007 at 17:53
Here’s the finished cover, wrap-around style, for Joe Hill’s chapbook The Saved, with artwork by PS regular James Hannah:
As we announced earlier in the year, The Saved is this year’s bonus chapbook for subscribers to Postscripts magazine, so the only way to get hold of a copy when it’s published will be if you’re a current and paid-up subscriber when issue #13 of the magazine is sent out.
More information on the Subscriptions page of the PS Webstore, if you’re tempted…
New cover art for Ray Bradbury’s ‘Dandelion Wine’, 50th Anniversary edition
Posted by Darren on November 20th, 2007 at 9:34
There’s been a slight change of plan here at PS Towers regarding the forthcoming 50th Anniversary edition of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Dandelion Wine. Pete will explain how it happened:
Hi Folks -
It was out of the blue. That’s how it happened. We were all geared up to print Dandelion Wine when, completely unannounced, one of our fave artists, Tomislav Tikulin, sent us a copy of his latest work… and wouldn’t you know it – it was Dandelion Wine! Not only that, but it’s absolutely wonderful! I checked with Tomislav to make sure it was for sale and then (having had the thumbs-up) set to trying to figure out how best to shoehorn the second piece of cover artwork into the project.
It was fairly straightforward, as it turned out – ALL copies of the book will have Tomislav’s artwork printed onto the boards, while the slipcased and deluxe editions will additionally have the original artwork (as advertised on the website this past few months) on a dust-jacket ON TOP of the illustrated boards.
Prices remain the same except for the trade edition which, because it will not now have a dust-jacket, we’re reducing from £25/$50 to £20/$40. If you’ve paid in advance for that book, you will receive a refund of the extra £5/$10; either that or get in touch and use the overspend as credit on another book. It’s your choice – we’re easy either way.
This, may mean that the book takes a little longer to finalise and print, but crumbs… Dandelion Wine is one of my all-time favourite books. And that artwork is just superb. I mean… what could I do?! Or, for that matter… what would YOU have done?! See for yourself:
Cheers, Pete!
So, just to confirm, here are the full details for each edition:
Hardcover edition – £20.00 ($40.00 approx.) – 500 copies
This ’standard’ edition will now feature the new Tomislav Tikulin artwork on a PPC cover – the artwork will be printed directly onto the book cover – and the book will no longer be supplied with a dust jacket. The price of this edition will also be dropped to £20 ($40 approx.) to reflect the lower production costs involved, and to bring it in line with the rest of the forthcoming PS titles. As Pete said, appropriate refunds will be given to anyone who has already paid the earlier, higher price.
Slipcased edition – £50.00 ($100 approx.) – 200 copies
The slipcased edition will also have the Tomislav Tikulin artwork printed onto the cover, and in addition will feature a dust-jacket with the original Amos Sewell illustration (as per our previous ‘Finished Cover…’ post. In effect, two jackets for the price of one, and no alteration in the price.
Deluxe Two Volume Slipcased edition – £375.00 ($750.00 approx.) – 100 copies
Likewise, the copy of Dandelion Wine included in the deluxe edition will also have the Tomislav Tikulin artwork printed onto the cover, and the Amos Sewell dust-jacket. The companion volume, Summer Morning, Summer Night will remain unchanged, featuring front and back cover artwork by Ray Bradbury himself.
If you have any questions at all, please send them to the general enquiries email address on the Contact Page.
Finished Cover: ‘Dandelion Wine, 50th Anniversary Edition’ by Ray Bradbury
Posted by Darren on October 19th, 2007 at 16:41
The publication of our 50th Anniversary Edition of Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury’s classic novel of a young boy’s summer in the fictional burgh of Greentown, Illinois – is going to be a major landmark in our publishing calendar. For the jacketed hardcover and slipcased hardcover we’ve selected a piece of suitably evocative artwork by American illustrator Amos Sewell:
The deluxe two-volume slipcased edition will contain that same new edition of Dandelion Wine, along with a companion volume, Summer Morning, Summer Night, that features all the other Greentown, Illinois stories that Ray Bradbury has written to-date; some of which are previously unpublished. The artwork for Summer Morning, Summer Night has been created by Ray Bradbury himself, and here’s the wrap-around of the finished cover:
Copies of this deluxe volume – and we’re only printing 100 of them – will also be signed by both Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, who has written the introduction to the new edition.
The Largesse of the Gentleman Publisher…
Posted by Darren on October 8th, 2007 at 11:08
There is a Gentleman Publisher
And he stoppeth one of three
“By thy short grey beard and glittering eye,
Are those free books for me?”*
The photo above was sent in by Peter Coleborn – publisher, photographer, editor of the BFS magazine Dark Horizons – and shows our very own Peter C demonstrating his generosity during the British Fantasy Awards ceremony at this year’s Fantasycon in Nottingham.
You see, there were a few PS titles left in the dealer’s room at the end of the weekend and so our Mr Crowther – rather than cart them all back to PS HQ – decided to give them away to any Fantasycon ‘virgins’ who were brave enough to stand up and be so-identified at the start of the ceremony. A certain scoundrel of the Lebbon clan, who we suspected of being far from virginal, had to be sent packing with a flea in his ear, ’tis true, but otherwise the operation was a great success.
One lucky recipient actually went away with a particularly rare item – a slipcased (no less!) copy of the original (mis-)printing of Ramsey Campbell’s (according to the spine, anyhow) The Darkest Part of the Wods [sic] (dammit, Pete told me he’d had all of those pulped… he must have missed one!)
And a couple of weeks later, we received a very nice thank-you email from one such virgin, by the name of Kelvin, who said: “I would just like to say a very big thank you for the copy of Moby Jack and Other Tall Tales by Garry Kilworth that you gave me, after the banquet, at FantasyCon ‘07 … A most excellent compilation of diverse and different long (short) stories; each one delivering a point, through differing characters, in wonderfully diverse settings. Mr Kilworth’s imagination is a treasure to behold.”
There’s nothing we at PS like more than a happy customer, and we reckon they probably don’t come much happier!
*With sincere apologies to the the shade of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who must be approaching at least 200 r.p.m. after that one…
Major Schedule Update – Forthcoming Titles to December 2008
Posted by Darren on September 13th, 2007 at 13:33
We’ve just run a major update of the current main PS Publishing website (no, not the full e-commerce implementation, not quite yet, but that’s definitely on the way) and have added a total of 32 new titles to the forthcoming titles page on the site.
Here’s a full list – in approximate order of planned publication – of those 32 new titles, with links to the relevant catalogue pages. Click on the links to view full information on a particular title:
- PS Showcase #1: Sanity and Other Delusions, a six-story collection by Gary Fry
- Cage of Night, a novel by Ed Gorman
- Omega, a novel by Christopher Evans
- The Last Book, a novel by Zoran Živković
- Harsh Oases, a short fiction collection by Paul Di Filippo
- The Babylonian Trilogy, a novel by Sebastien Doubinsky
- The City in These Pages, a novella by John Grant
- Passing For Human, a short fiction anthology ed. By Michael Bishop & Steven Utley
- Planet of Mystery, a novella by Terry Bisson
- The Book, The Writer, The Reader, a novella by Zoran Živković
- The Bridge, a novella by Zoran Živković
- Living With the Dead, a novella by Darrell Schweitzer
- The Song of Time, a novel by Ian R. MacLeod
- The Collected Ed Gorman, Vol. #3, a short fiction collection by Ed Gorman
- Basil Copper: A Life in Books, a biography and bibliography by Steve Jones
- Return of the Crimson Guard, a novel by Ian Cameron Esslemont
- The Situation, a chapbook novelette by Jeff Vandermeer
- Camp Desolation and an Eschatology of Salt, a novella by Uncle River
- Blue Canoe, a novella by T.M. Wright
- The Enigma of Departure, a novella by Nick Royle
- The Witnesses Are Gone, a novella by Joel Lane
- Billy’s Book, a short fiction collection by Terry Bisson
- Shrike, a novella by Quentin S. Crisp
- Counting Tadpoles, a short fiction collection by Uncle River
- Urbis Morpheos, a novel by Stephen Palmer
- Postscripts #16 ed. by Pete Crowther & Nick Gevers
- Everland and Other Stories, a short fiction collection by Paul Witcover
- Mystery Hill, a novella by Alex Irvine
- Postscripts #17 ed. by Pete Crowther & Nick Gevers
- Val / Orson, a novella by Marly Youmans
- The Painting and the City, a novel by Robert Freeman Wexler
The following titles have been on the forthcoming titles schedule for a while now, but here’s a handy reminder-list for your browsing convenience…
- Dandelion Wine, 50th Anniversary Edition of the novel by Ray Bradbury
- Starship Summer, a novella by Eric Brown
- The City Beyond Play, a novella by Philip José Farmer & Danny Adams
- Dagger Key and Other Stories, a short fiction collection by Lucius Shepard
- The Crystal Cosmos, a novella by Rhys Hughes
- Dead Earth: The Green Dawn, a novella by Mark Justice & David T. Wilbanks
- Random Walk, a novel by Lawrence Block
- The Luminous Depths, a novella by David Herter
- Tales From the White Hart, a short fiction collection by Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter
- Hello Summer, Goodbye, a novel by Michael Coney
- I Remember Pallahaxi, a novel by Michael Coney
- Template, a novel by Matthew Hughes
- Ellison Wonderland, a short fiction collection by Harlan Ellison
- The Day it Rained Forever, a short fiction collection by Ray Bradbury
- Long After Midnight, a short fiction collection by Ray Bradbury
- The Economy of Light, a novella by Jack Dann
- The Machineries of Joy, a short fiction collection by Ray Bradbury
And here are our previously-announced issues of Postscripts magazine, all edited by our very own Pete Crowther and Nick Gevers:
These titles are all available to pre-order now, direct from PS Publishing.
Special Offer – Free Postage on pre-orders before October 1st
Place (and complete) your pre-order for any of the forthcoming titles listed above by the end of September 2007 and we’ll send your books post free by first class post or airmail (as applicable) as soon as they’re published. See the how to order page of the website for further details.
Feedback: on Stephen King’s ‘The Colorado Kid’
Posted by Darren on September 3rd, 2007 at 13:05
If there’s one sort of email we like receiving here at PS Towers, it’s an email from a satisfied customer. And we’ve received a fair few of those recently regarding our edition of Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid – which we’re particularly proud of ourselves – so please do excuse us if we blow our own trumpets for a moment and post a few of the comments that we’ve received:
“The Chadbourne Traycase arrived last night in perfect condition. It’s absolutely beautiful. I own MANY rare items in my book / art collection. This traycase edition just got moved to the top of my favorite list. Please tell everyone at PS they did an excellent job.” R Mulleins, collector
“I just wanted to congratulate you (and thank you) on a fine job with The Colorado Kid. Everyone I’ve spoken to loves his / her editions, regardless of which they are.” Ceri, www.skfakes.co.uk (a members-only Site designed to help Stephen King collectors identify fake King signatures on eBay)
“You truly outdid yourself on both signed editions, but I particularly like the traycased/lettered editions. Most publishers would have just made the leather all the same colour for ease and cost issues, but you didn’t and it really adds to the uniqueness.” Ray Smith, collector
Ah… the warm glow of a job well done…
Format alteration: Michael Coney novels now to be published in £20 / $40 hardcover
Posted by Darren on August 21st, 2007 at 15:44
We’ve taken the decision to alter the format and pricing of our two forthcoming novels by Michael Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye and its previously unpublished sequel I Remember Pallahaxi.
Instead of releasing them in jacketed hardcover editions for £25 / $50 (approx.) they will now be published in £15 / $30* £20 / $40 (approx.) un-jacketed hardcover editions. These have proven extremely popular for other recent titles (notably Ramsey Campbell’s The Grin of the Dark and our first two volumes of collected Ed Gorman stories, Out There in the Darkness and The Moving Coffin) and, we believe, offer great value for money for our customers.
We’d like to stress that this is absolutely not any sort of comment on the quality of these two volumes. We firmly believe that both novels are masterful works and deserve to be read by as wide an audience as possible; it’s for this reason that we’ve decided to alter the previously advertised format and pricing for both volumes.
The two-volume slipcased edition will still contain jacketed hardcover editions of both titles and will remain at £50 ($100 approx.), which will be signed by Eric Brown and Brian Aldiss, who have provided respective introductions to the two volumes. The unjacketed hardcover editions will not be signed, by either contributor.
If you have previously ordered and paid for a £25 / $50 edition of either or both title(s), rest assured that the difference will be refunded to your credit card prior to publication and despatch (just as soon as we get chance to process the transactions, in fact).
If you have any questions at all, please contact the PS office.
*Edit 10.09.07 – Following another review of our pricing and print runs, we’ve settled on £20 ($40 approx.) as the standard price for our un-jacketed hardcover editions. Apologies for any confusion caused…
Eric Brown’s ‘Starship Summer’: 26-copy slipcased edition added to range
Posted by Darren on August 21st, 2007 at 15:08
Following the recent success of our 26-copy, lettered, slipcased editions of Mark Justice & David T. Wilbanks’ Dead Earth: The Green Dawn and Philip José Farmer & Danny Adams’ The City Beyond Play – both of which are all-but sold out on pre-orders alone, we’ve decided to offer a similarly limited, slipcased edition of one or two more titles.
The first of these will be Eric Brown’s science fiction novella Starship Summer. The strictly limited, 26-copy lettered, slipcased edition of this title is available to pre-order now, priced £50 ($100 approx.) Details are available on the appropriate catalogue page on the main PS website.
If you have already ordered a hardcover (£10) or jacketed hardcover (£25) copy of the novella and would now like to upgrade to the lettered, slipcased edition, please contact the PS Publishing office as quickly as possible so we can arrange for the additional payment to be made.
eBay Watch: Postscripts #10, slipcased edition
Posted by Darren on July 9th, 2007 at 19:58
If you missed out on a copy of the incredibly rare and collectible (only 200 copies printed) slipcased edition of Postscripts #10, then this eBay UK item may be of interest to you… if you’re feeling flush.
Item #140137469099 – the seller is asking £350.00 plus p&p, or you can make him an offer…
Auction closes July 21st at 20:18:10 BST.
Paul DiFilippo on Postscripts #10
Posted by Darren on June 2nd, 2007 at 9:58
Over on the Inferior 4+1 blog, author Paul Di Filippo had some very nice things to say about the latest, 10th issue of our Postscripts magazine.
Alas though, the version of Postscripts #10 that Paul singles out as being particularly worthy of praise – the $25.00 PPC semi-Hardcover edition – is actually completely sold out here at PS Towers.
You could always try to hunt down a dealer in collectable editions, or try to find a second-hand copy, but it might cost you a wrist and an ankle at the very least; we saw the PPC edition offered for £200 on eBay.co.uk recently… and that’s not even the slipcased copy!
We do have plenty of copies of the extremely reasonable (nay, let’s be honest, insanely good value-for-money) £12.00 PPC semi-Hardcover edition in stock, although those are selling fast…
Our suggested remedy for the missing-out-on-Postscripts blues would be to take out a Subscription, at the earliest opportunity!