Illuminations: Artist’s Statement on Skinless from Maggie Moor

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

The X-Ray of a Void 

I wrote SKINLESS as an X-ray of the human urge to fill an inner void—and of the courage it takes to let go of false identities to build a life grounded in the heart.

In late-1990s New York City, Charmay hides behind a crafted persona, “Cindy,” to survive the visceral PTSD flashbacks she calls her internal expeirence: “skinless.”

With the intimacy of a confessional mic, this story invites you into an unfiltered, real-time interior where memories blur and fracture into jazz-syncopated perceptions and hard-boiled wit. It is a story for anyone searching for light at the darkest edges of the mind.

THE EVOLUTION: THE SECOND EDITION (2025)

In 2024, I reclaimed the rights to Skinless to give the story the space it deserved. This expanded Second Edition is not just longer; it is deeper. I added over 100 pages to give voice to scenes once too exposed to share.
This version introduces a new storyline featuring a legendary music producer and a mercurial vocal coach, deepening the arc of songwriting as a visceral pathway for healing. It explores how we integrate the self by giving language to what lives deep in the cells.


LIFE ON THE PAGE: 1990s NYC.  

       •  Street Poetry: After-hours dives, East Village haunts, and lyrics written at rock bottom—a slice of NYC’s underground arts history.
       •  The Mask & The Machine: An exploration of how a capitalist city profits on performance and hides its scars behind wealth, while survival is left up for grabs.
      •  The Heat of Passion: A world where violence, loyalty, and betrayal are conflated with the desperate hunger for protection.
      •  The Lens of Time: A narrative where past, present, and future happen all at once, viewed through the “steadier voice” of a survivor’s lens.

THE SOUNDTRACK: SONGS FROM THE BOOK

The music in Skinless is not just atmosphere; it is the story’s blood. The songs performed by Charmay come from my own stage life—the true history behind my debut album, Red Devil Trickery.

The companion album, Skinless: Songs from the Book, features previously unreleased recordings by “Artist Charmay,” featuring New York City jazz and blues legends. Every book in the New York Noir series features music written and performed by me, bridging the gap between the page and the stage.

In Closing: A Crescendo from Silence

Skinless isn’t polished for comfort. It is an exploration of humanity at its most primitive and its most prismatic, offering a way to give language to the unsayable. Skinless enters the void, the masks, and the voice of human survival, reaching out to anyone still half-hidden in their shell.

I’m not much for goodbyes—simply, now. Stay on the growing side of diminished. ~MM

Read Skinless
Maggie Moor Skinless Charmay New York Noir