Slip into SKINLESS.
The “howling chaos" of the 1999 Lower East Side.
Welcome to Charmay: New York Noir.
Psychological noir—breathes like jazz.
Slip inside the visceral jazz-pulse of Skinless—where the blur between performance and self becomes a war for the soul, and redemption isn’t what you think.
Skinless — Book One
A 9-part Substack series in sound, rhythm, and evolution.
Most stories treat the “femme fatale” as a silhouette—seen from the outside.
Skinless moves inside. She isn’t the object of the story. She’s the one telling it.
Noted for its rhythmic street-poetry, the work bends crime into something more intimate, unsettling, and precise.
“Charmay might come across as an object of desire and danger, but her gifts for introspection and observation make her the perfect lynchpin for subversion. She’s not the object of an external gaze; she’s a character with agency and authority.”
— Kirkus Reviews
The Artist: Charmay
The Siren, alter ego: Cindy
The Internal Tormentor: Skinless
The powerful men who surround her.
STREET POETRY. BEAUTY. DANGER. SURVIVAL.
1999 NYC: An orphan-misfit singer hustling for the American Dream masks her trauma behind a glittering alter ego—as the mask starts to eat the creator in a fever of betrayal, Skinless forces her past to the fore, hurling her into a brutal reckoning.
“A deeply moving, deliciously weighty work of fiction.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS
About the Author
Maggie Moor writes dark psychological noir shaped by performance, investigation, and psychoanalysis.
Author of Skinless, called “unvarnished and undeniably powerful” by BookLife, her work traces the neurological cost of survival—where the street poetry of the NYC underground meets the precision of a psychoanalyst and the jazz-pulse of a siren.
SKINLESS: The Story of a Female Survivor
FOR READERS OF: Milkman, In the Cut, The Bell Jar, The Basketball Diaries, Cherry, and the beat-style prose of Kerouac.
Just off the road, homeless, Charmay—hard-boiled but “skinless”—is the orphan-misfit of the 1999 NYC underground, creating songs from hidden pain. While navigating gritty clubs, an indifferent entertainment industry, and a “bullets or bedsheets” marriage, she masks up as Cindy: a glittering alter ego and “everything Charmay wants to be,” built to shield her from Skinless—her raw PTSD and internal tormentor.
Hustling through Lower East Side crime, subterranean haunts, and Fifth Avenue glam, her pursuit of the American dream ensnares Charmay in a maze of predatory power and “family snipers,” as Skinless relentlessly “forces Charmay’s traumatic past… to the fore.” When her identities collide in a fever dream of hallucinations and betrayal, she is hurled into a brutal reckoning.
THE WORD ON THE STREET:
“Moor’s poetic, stream-of-consciousness prose drops readers directly into the mind of a trauma survivor... Those who surrender to the flow will be rewarded.” — KIRKUS REVIEWS
“A must-read... stark, unsentimental prose.” — INDIEREADER
“Undeniably powerful… a portrait of survival that doesn’t sanitize the mess.” — BOOKLIFE BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“Street poetry renders the city in lush, sensual language.” — FOREWORD REVIEWS
THE SOUNDTRACK TO SURVIVAL
Skinless: Songs from the Book. Jazz-noir and downtempo featuring Kenny Rampton (Wynton Marsalis) and Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister).
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
SKINLESS is an expanded x-ray of the things we hide and the art that speaks through us—urgent, unfiltered—and a raw look at how we adapt to survive. I’m not much for hellos or goodbyes. Simply, now.
Stay on the growing side of diminished. — MM
GET THE BOOK:
HEAR THE SOUNDTRACK:
Buy the album : Apple | Amazon
GOODREADS WORDS
“Skinless isn’t just a book; it’s an immersive voice. The duality between Charmay and Cindy—one fragile yet resilient, the other bold and dangerous—is a psychological high-wire act. It’s like living inside a story rather than just reading one.”
— Goodreads Reviewer, 5★
“Skinless is razor‑taut literary psychological suspense—a portrait of a woman fighting to heal… Goes into such deep description of characters and events that you can almost taste it.” — NetGalley, Advanced Reviewer, 4★
Slip into SKINLESS.
The rhythm. Join the list.
Dossier
Episode #1: SKINLESS: INSIDE THE STORY
Lower East Side, 1999. Charmay—hard-boiled, jazz-pulse—Skinless opens.
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Episode #2: THE DOSSIER & THE DESCENT
Skinless—an x-ray of survival, trauma, artistry.
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Episode #3: THE SPLINTERED SELF
A singer-songwriter haunted by “Skinless.”
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Episode #4: THE MASK & THE MIRROR
Cindy—seductive armor. Protection. Threat.
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Episode #5: BULLET LINE OR BEDSHEETS?
Love, sex, danger—the line between safety and betrayal.
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Episode #6: THE PLAYERS & THE PIECES
Three powerful men in Charmay’s orbit. The darkly comic underground. NYC.
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Episode #7: THE JAZZ CUT
Street poetry pulse. Nonlinear voice. Fragmented truth.
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Episode #8: THE AMERICAN DREAM (WITH THE SKIN TORN OFF)
The American Dream—split open. “Trash Girl” / Chanel Suit. Race. Class. Abandonment.
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✦ BONUS
BONUS EPISODE: THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS
Music as map—each track shaping the arc—archival recordings from Maggie Moor’s life—reborn inside the fictional world of Charmay. With future‑leaning pieces like “Awake” and “Spiderwebb” shadowing Book 2.
✦ SERIES / WORLD EXPANSION
THE EVOLUTION OF NEW YORK NOIR
THE EVOLUTION: CHARMAY AFTER 9/11
In this world, everyone’s a hunter—and everyone’s haunted.
2001, the line between performance and survival is razor-thin. For Charmay—now “a new monicker”—acting isn’t a career; it’s a cover for a PI sting that spirals into a voyeuristic nightmare.
“Those who surrender to the flow will be rewarded.”— Kirkus Reviews
Get Inside every new drop.
Episode #1 of Skinless: Inside the Story is live
Step into the 1999 Lower East Side with Charmay—a singer fighting a raw vulnerability she calls “skinless.” Between the bare springs of a dive studio and the hum of a half-drunk Jameson, her piano calls, the hustle begins— and “Cindy” is lurking for control.
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