 "Photo: Courtesy of Penguin Group")
 "Photo: Courtesy of Penguin Group")
Being the bearer of bad news is a tough job.
And when it's a matter of life and death, it's not just tough - it's near impossible.
Will Beall, a San Diego State alumnus, did the impossible.
"I had to be the one to tell this woman that her daughter had been murdered," said Beall, who is a police officer in Los Angeles. "I had to make that death notification.
"And because it was just the two of us in the room, I had to comfort her in some way. I'd never been faced with suffering like that before, and that just changed my whole concept of what police work is about."
Beall was 26 years old and still a rookie in his first year with the L.A. Police Department when this happened.
It was this life-altering event, followed by many others, that prompted Beall to begin writing in a journal. He wrote down detailed accounts of almost everything that happened to him or other officers that he works with in the 77th division of Los Angeles, commonly known as South Central L.A.
Beall, who will be 35 on Sunday, turned his journal into a 304-page novel, "L.A. Rex," which was published by Penguin in September.
He'd had no prior professional writing experience apart form working as managing editor for The Daily Aztec and stringing for other publications - such as San Diego Magazine and The North County Times - after graduating from SDSU in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in English.
Although Beall has become an accomplished writer, he said he wasn't much of a journalist, but there were some aspects to working as a journalist that have stuck with him throughout his career as a police officer.
"The parts that I liked about journalism were getting out there, interfacing with people and being present at these intense events," Beall said. "And to the extent that I could be for The Daily Aztec, I was sort of an investigative journalist."
Beall said the parts of the journalism field that had to do with helping people and staying in the action are a part of why he's a cop.
"But the bad part of journalism was that you have to take yourself out (of) the action," Beall said. "And, of course, being a cop demands that you participate."
Participate he did, and now Beall's book is chock-full of his experiences from working in one of the most dangerous areas in the state, South Central, which the city of Los Angeles has now officially named South L.A. in an effort to remove the stigma of violence and corruption that rappers - such as Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls - associate with the name.
Beall's book, set in South Central L.A. in the late 1990s, portrays the true corruption of former L.A.P.D. police officers, the deaths of famous rap artists and gang activity. The main character, Ben Halloran, is a rookie, much like Beall was when he began, who is paired with a veteran cop and exposed to human suffering and corruption on paramount levels.
Beall said he used the title "L.A. Rex" as a play on the title of the Greek drama "Oedipus Rex."
"Rex means 'king' in Latin, and (the title) refers a little bit to power struggle of warring factions that want to take control of L.A.'s underworld," he said.
Beall's imagination and writing skills have earned him several movie options for "L.A. Rex." He's chosen to work with Miramax Films producer Scott Rudin and is currently working on his 90-page screenplay to translate his book to the silver screen.
Beall said the film has a release date set for sometime in 2007.
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