Hello there. Welcome to the personal, professional and occasionally philosophical web page of Reginald “R.J.” Beatty, writer, editor, longtime newspaperman, first-class chili chef, so-and-so guitarist, improving guerrilla carpenter and a whole lot more. I’m based in Hillsborough, N.C., where I reside with my lovely wife, sometimes lovable kitty and a houseful of debris from four decades on this rock.

I’ve lived in North Carolina for most of my life, with stints up in Virginia and out on the high plains of New Mexico. I’ve done a bit of traveling, mostly around the Southeast and Southwest, and have something like nine foreign countries under my belt, most recently a lengthy trip to Scotland and Ireland a couple of years ago. Everywhere I go, I try and learn a little something I didn’t know before, and can hold my own in just about any conversation, no matter the subject. I have shelves and stacks of books everywhere around this house, and hope to get to the majority of them before I’m done. I dig history, politics, music, saloons, live shows, the beach, Carolina basketball, hot summer nights and the occasional karaoke number. There are those who would say I’m a bit difficult to get to know; in the next breath they’ll tell you, in all sincerity, that they’ve never met anyone quite like me.

Thanks for visiting. We’ll talk some more later.

R.J.