Does good writing take balls? Perhaps not, but readers love stories with balls. To wit: In the premiere issue of Conde Nast’s Cargo Magazine – a sort of Consumer Reports for metrosexuals and savvy gays – the most popular story, according to openly gay Cargo Senior Editor Aaron Krach, has proven to be “Totally Ripped”. It’s an article about Brazilian waxes for men, or, in other words “ball waxing”.

“People went crazy about the ‘ball waxing’ story,” shrugs Krach, in a recent interview as part of a promotion for his new book Half-Life. “I can’t live that down. I’ve gotten so much reader mail from people all over the country wanting to know where they can get it done. And it’s mostly straight guys!”

Unfortunately, Krach learned this writing-with-balls lesson after he had already completed Half-Life, his debut novel from Alyson Press that hit shelves in April.

Shifting its focus and POV like a movie camera, Half-Life is an atmospheric, almost dreamlike work filled with quietly cinematic moments and truthful coming-of-age revelations. Set in a fictitious central Los Angeles neighborhood called Angelito, Half-Life is the story of a gay high school senior, Adam, and his friends/family during the tumultuous week of his graduation. Drama stirs up when Greg, Adam’s chronically depressed father, commits suicide, an act Adam may or may not have assisted in some manner.

Caught up in the aftermath of tears, a few laughs and plenty of crushes are Adam’s close friends Dart and Fran, mom Vivian, stepfather Marc, and Jeff, a cool and collected police officer who becomes Adam’s lover.

Born in Michigan, Krach grew up in Los Angeles. An aspiring filmmaker, he enrolled in art school here at University of California San Diego (UCSD), and after graduating headed to New York. Eventually he realized that endless resources, equipment, and collaborators would be needed to mount a substantial filmmaking effort, so he redirected his energies into a novel.

“I could write, send it out, and get people behind it in a more autonomous way,” he explains.

Krach utilized his writing skills to earn a living as well – his literary career has run the gamut of high- and way low-brow. For a spell he held a position at the publishing house of such gay adult magazines as Honcho, Inches, Mandate and Torso.

“I credit it with teaching me how to write,” Krach says, “because I had to write so much bullshit every day. So many characters, scenarios and voices. The headlines, the letters, the little stories, make up all the interviews. I did that for two years. Luckily it wasn’t that much work, so I could always freelance on the side and that’s how I kept my foot in the ‘other’ world.”

The “other” world entailed film and arts coverage for The Independent Film and Video Monthly, Out Magazine, Time Out New York, InStyle, A&U and editorial stints at a gay glossy, EMPIRE Magazine, and Gay City News. Last year Conde Nast hired Krach as senior editor for a new publication, Lucky For Men, which ultimately became Cargo.

Asked how the Cargo office’s sexuality breaks down, Krach reckons that it’s “definitely mixed” between gay men and heterosexuals. He admits that staffers will occasionally cry “too gay!” about a proposed article or item (a feature on how men’s bags – from suitcases to a man’s purse – ranked in gayness was scrapped), but always in good humor. By the same token, Krach reveals that heterosexual coworkers will often embrace his queer-eyed advice.

“I’ve been teaching the straight guys how to take care of themselves, which is shocking,” he admits. “I had one straight man come to me, a 35-year-old, and he’s been shaving with a disposable razor all his life and he hates shaving. Hello! I had to teach him how to use a real razor and some real shaving cream as opposed to Barbasol Gel. I also sent him to get a manicure and he still won’t stop talking about how I changed his life. It’s very sweet, actually. And the straight people have taught me things.”

For example?

“I didn’t know who Ted Nugent was,” Krach replies with a grin. “Now I do.”

Krach describes Half-Life as a “sort of make-believe and fantasy” meditation upon his youth. “So many things in the book are ‘what ifs.’ What if you had the perfect friend in high school like Adam has? What if you got to fall in love with a police officer? What if all these things could happen?”

Krach describes Adam as “far cooler” as he was as a teen. “I didn’t have friends like [Dart],” he says. “I did have a very cool boyfriend in high school though. He was my best friend and my boyfriend so it was a double whammy, a best friend you got to have sex with. But I must not have been a very good first boyfriend because he became a born-again Christian and a missionary and denounced his homosexuality. Whatever. You can’t save all of them.”

Yet the most touchy “what if” in Half-Life involves the death of Adam’s father. In reality, Krach’s mother is depression-prone and had attempted to commit suicide on a couple of occasions.

“That’s where the book came from,” Krach confesses. “I was in my therapist’s office after one of her attempts and he asked, how did it make you feel, and I said, ‘I wish she had just succeeded.’ I panicked and thought ‘Oh my god that’s so awful, I can’t believe I said that.’ And this crazy shrink, a 65 year old gay man, was like, ‘Don’t worry man, it’s just a fantasy – just like how I want to get tied up and have guys beat me up.’ I thought ‘OK, way too much information from you!’ But it got me thinking about what would have happened.”

Now that the book is out, “it’s causing a little drama in my family,” Krach admits. Some relatives have clucked about what they perceive as airing of dirty laundry while his siblings, a brother and sister, were split in their reactions.

“My sister was very fascinated and glad to read it because it expressed a lot of things she felt,” he says, “and they got that the book is about more than suicide. It’s about growing up with inadequate parents and everyone [knows] that situation. My brother is younger, and just angry. He doesn’t know why I wrote it.”

And mother, whose bouts of depression are under control with medication?

“She liked it, but she was a little taken aback,” Krach reports. “I told her what it was about to prepare her but that didn’t completely do it. She still has mental health issues, and she probably will be on meds forever. But she hasn’t had a severe episode in probably five years.”

Krach will be making some national appearances to read from and promote Half-Life. He also contributed to Between the Palms (Harrington Park Press), a collection of erotic gay travel stories edited by Michael T. Luongo, in which he recounted a steamy beachside encounter with a stranger. Krach also bares sexual sides of himself in his visual art, which has appeared in galleries and installations from Denmark to Chicago to New York.

Single to mingle – he broke up with his boyfriend of 3 1/2 years, Gary, while writing Half-Life – Krach is currently writing a novel about a longtime gay couple dealing with a fading lust for each other … and how they’re finding it in new places.

“Don’t worry – there’s lots of frisky, new sex in it,” he assures.

And men’s Brazilian waxing?

“I received some mini bikini line razors,” Krach relays. “They’re like one-inch and you could use them to shave your bikini line, but I tell people don’t shave your bikini line because you don’t need the irritation. Trim. It’s all in moderation, dudes. Don’t go ripping anything out or off. Just trim.”