Episode #1 | SKINLESS: INSIDE THE STORY

Spotlight : Chapter 1

Nov 05, 2025

URBAN HEAT. LITERARY NOIR. STREET POETRY.

“A visceral portrait of trauma, dissociation, and survival that bends the crime genre into something intimate, unsettling, and fiercely human.”

1999 NYC: A haunted singer hides behind Cindy—a glittering body double with an iron will and velvet tongue. When the mask begins to eat its creator in a visceral fever of violence and betrayal, she must face “skinless” to reclaim her soul.

Noted for its rhythmic street-poetry and jazz-pulse noir, Skinless is an unsettling, fiercely human portrait of survival that bends the crime genre into something new.

WRITTEN BY MAGGIE MOOR — Singer-songwriter and licensed psychoanalyst.

FOR FANS OF:

The Raw Interiority: Milkman, In the Cut, The Basketball Diaries.
The Cinematic Atmosphere: Lost Highway, Blue Valentine, HBO’s The Sopranos.

PRAISE:

““A deeply moving, deliciously weighty work of fiction... poetic, stream-of-consciousness prose. [Moor’s] gifts for introspection and observation make her the perfect lynchpin for the author’s subversion... a deeply moving work.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A powerful portrait of a mind splintering at the seams.” — BookLife

Welcome to the Shadows

Every great noir holds a secret. As Carl Jung famously put it:

“In each of us there is another whom we do not know.” - Carl Gustav Jung

Buy Skinless $3.99

If your mind is drawn to the grit of The Basketball Diaries, the raw nerves of The Bell Jar, or the neon-soaked tension of In the Cut, you’ve found a slipstream.

The Word on the Street

Before we descend into the Lower East Side of 1999, here is what the early readers are saying about Charmay’s world:

“A hidden gem... The story of a young woman maneuvering a dangerous triangle with a local weed kingpin. Moor takes you deep into the psyche of a protagonist who is sharp-witted, resourceful, and dangerous. She can feign sweetness to get what she needs, but has the ability to spit venom in the blink of an eye. If you crave psychological suspense that you can almost taste, add this to your list.”
— Tammy, NetGalley Reviewer

PART I | CHAPTER ONE

Lower East Side, New York

A wind tapped at heavily drawn aluminum shades, trying to breathe newness into the howling chaos. Me and Sam had one thing to cling to on this banal rock, and that was each other. Well, each other and whatever else we could get our hands on.

Bare springs. Mattress. Me. The cheap AC cranked in the middle of September rattled my bones—a fixture insisted on by Sam, my hot-blooded Cuban choice of man. Sam ran everything in his life as a quick means to get by and a quick means to die. He set for sleep like he will the morgue, when he’s done doing his time.

“That ass is mine,” he muttered. His silver sacred heart Jesus chain slid cold against my neck.

I pulled myself from him, stretching overworked limbs. I appeared lithe and strong—the result of childhood dance and teenage homelessness—but that morning, like most, I found it impossible to find the strength to stand. It was the cold of my inner unrest, the daily endurance of the “Skinless” vulnerability I’d quieted with my own mind.

A salmon-colored rotary phone rang from its perch on the hardwood floor, just across the beige sheet we used to separate the mattress from the living space. Our fifth sublet in two years. Another dive studio in the shadow of the city.

“Don’t answer the phone, babe,” Sam yelled. “If it’s Jess, tell him I’m under the flu. Tell him I’m watching Mean Streets.”

Sam loved his Scorsese flicks. I think he thought we lived in one. Or maybe we did. We lived like there was no tomorrow. Back then, “Live like you’re gonna die tomorrow” wasn’t a spiritual mantra—it was a secret hope. I didn’t care if I died. I expected to.

I stretched in a slip of pink sundown on the dusty floor.

“Fuckin’ symp softees…”

“Softee” was my word for people who hadn’t survived the streets. People with parents’ money and no grit. People who didn’t have to build a fortress at age ten because they’d been “touched funny” and had nowhere to turn.

“Girl, don’t hide your face from nothin’…” I found myself humming. A song I was composing. Music was the only thing that felt like innocence, even if that innocence had been stolen in a bathroom stall years ago.

“Told you last night about Jess,” Sam called out. “I’m makin’ moves. Cash for capital in case I gotta fly solo. Just some white kid and a few pounds of pot. Don’t answer the door.”

The answering machine clicked. Triple time. My mother’s voice, saccharine and distant, filled the room: “Hello, my darling daughter, I’m just watching these two gorgeous loons float on the inlet pond…”

I stared at the machine, dead-eyed, mouthing her words verbatim. She said the same thing every time. I winced as my pulse hammered against my skull. I slid my fingers behind the green silk curtain, grasping my half-drunk Jameson. My soldier on demand.

“Cool, liquid sunshine,” I crooned, cracking the screw top.

The Visual & The Voice

While Charmay stares at the salmon-colored phone and the dusty wood of her LES sublet, she’s already composing the soundtrack to her own survival.

The song she’s humming in Chapter 1 is “Girl”—a raw, downtempo track that captures the moment the mask of “Cindy” begins to take over. It’s the sound of naked vulnerability meeting the cold New York night.

"Girl"
Don’t hide your face from nothing
Pull your hair back
Don’t worry you’re alone
Dance
The music, the spotlight
Dancing body
Naked and alone

Listen to the Sound of "Skinless":

Link to Spotify

THE SOUNDTRACK TO THE NOIR

SKINLESS unfolds as an immersive experience, with the companion album, Skinless: Songs from the Book, is the arc of the story— archives of the author’s life—songs Charmay writes and performs on the page—featuring lush jazz chill-out featuring Kenny Rampton (Wynton Marsalis) and Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister).

Link to Apple Music | Link to Amazon

INSIDE THE STORY: THE SUBSTACK SERIES

This 9 episode series slips you into the world of SKINLESS, amidst the hidden corners of Charmay’s life: stages, street-benches, the beauty turned despair, and the jagged aftershocks of desire.

What you can expect in this series:

The Guided Walk: 8 weekly spotlights on the themes of survival and betrayal, plus a Bonus Music Episode on how each track was born.
The Evolution: A look at Charmay’s dangerous journey from “girl-voice” survival to a cold, calculated self-possession.
The Future: Exclusive glimpses into Book 2 through future-leaning pieces like “Awake” and “Spiderwebb.”

“Skinless took me on an emotional rollercoaster. One minute I was angry, then heartbroken, then inspired. The writing is gorgeous but not overdone. It’s emotional in a way that sneaks up on you. I’ll be recommending this to everyone I know.”
— Goodreads