I was overwhelmed with the number of you who said you'd like to be the Dean's World Submissions Editor. Sixteen of you said you were interested. Some of you are people whose work I know and respect, and the others certainly looked promising. Having to choose was difficult, and I cringe knowing that at least 15 people are going to feel slighted.

There was also a fascinating proposal that I thought hard about.

That proposal would be to say "yes" to almost everybody, set up a group mailing list, and have the group go over submissions. This was intriguing, but I've had the experience of trying to jockey herds of volunteers. Usually, sooner or later, someone winds up with hurt feelings. Blogging's supposed to be fun, and I'd hate to intentionally set up a situation where I was certain that, sooner or later, someone would get his feelings hurt in a dispute over editorial choices or policies. I'd rather have one person to abuse.

Seriously, the guy I settled on was someone I know and am pretty sure I can work with. I'm a fan of his work. I respect his writing and his intellect. What surprised me was that he was interested. He's a professional journalist at a respected newspaper. He spends all day writing, and he wants to come home so he can... edit! Now that's what I call a guy with ink in his blood.

Unfortunately, because he is a working journalist by day, he must use a nom de plume by night. Please don't pester him with questions about his day job. Just know that he's a reporter, he's no slouch as an editor, and he's pretty cool.

Meet Tim Machesney. His email address is "submissions" here at the deanesmay[dot] com domain. But don't send him attachments, he hates those. Just paste your stuff into your email. You should have a look at our revised submissions guidelines first, though.

Anyway, give Tim a nice welcome, would you?