About The Founder
C.J. Buckner
C.J. Buckner is an author, storyteller, and the founder of Betweenlight Studios, an independent creative studio built around original stories, immersive worlds, and characters shaped by the choices they make.
His approach to storytelling is rooted in a longstanding interest in people, how they think, what shapes them, what they survive, and who they become when circumstances force them to choose.
That perspective comes from both lived experience and education. Growing up around complicated circumstances gave C.J. an early understanding that people are rarely defined by a single moment, decision, or label. His academic background in sociology, criminal justice, and psychology further developed his interest in human behavior, relationships, identity, environment, and the consequences of choice.
His professional experience has also included working with young people involved in the juvenile justice system, giving him a close view of the ways family, environment, trauma, opportunity, perception, and personal responsibility can affect a person’s life.
Those influences naturally found their way into his writing.
C.J. is drawn to stories that exist between light and darkness, hope and loss, fate and choice, order and chaos, survival and transformation. His characters are often placed in situations where there is no simple answer and where the decisions they make reveal more about them than the circumstances surrounding them.
He also approaches worldbuilding with intention. Symbolism, mythology, recurring imagery, numbers, language, and seemingly minor details can carry meaning beyond what is immediately visible. For him, a fictional world should not simply provide a setting for a story, it should become part of the story itself.
That philosophy led to the creation of Betweenlight Studios.
Rather than building the studio around a single genre, C.J. created Betweenlight as a home for stories that may differ in setting, tone, and style while sharing the same underlying purpose.
To make readers feel something, question something, and carry something with them after the story ends.
That is the foundation behind C.J.’s work and the stories created through Betweenlight Studios.
Betweenlight Studios
Stories that live between.
Every story starts somewhere.
