Muenster author Brent Loehr has taken a creative leap into young adult fiction with his first full-length novel, “Memento Mori”, a coming-of-age story written for readers aged 12 to 16. The book blends diary entries with fictionalized scenes, creating a dynamic and emotionally resonant narrative for adolescent audiences.
Loehr’s previous book, “The Global Baseball Classroom” was an autobiographical journey into the connections between baseball and foreign cultures and experiences born from his overseas travels with a Major League Baseball outreach organization.
Now he’s turned his focus to the world of young adults, a realm that the father, teacher and performance coach has been immersed in for decades.
"It's my first work of full-length fiction and geared towards probably sweet spot would be 12- to 16-year-olds," said Loehr in a recent interview. "Junior high, early senior high."
The novel’s structure, combining introspective diary passages with dramatized storytelling, allows readers to connect deeply with the central character’s inner life while following a broader fictional arc.
This new work marks a departure from Loehr’s earlier writing, which leaned heavily on personal experience. His first book drew from autobiographical themes, particularly his reflections on baseball and its role as a metaphor for life and learning.
"My first book was kind of autobiographical in a sense," he said. "It looked at the connections between baseball and just looking at the world as a classroom."
The shift to fiction, however, had been long in the making. According to Loehr, the seed for this novel was planted decades ago during his undergraduate studies.
"I wrote a story probably over 30 years ago for a university class in my bachelor’s degree," Loehr explained. "It just kind of sat, and then later on, when I took some other graduate courses, it kind of rose up from the ashes, if you will."
The story began to evolve as Loehr added new layers of complexity, developing characters and interwoven plotlines. He credits celebrated Canadian author W.P. Kinsella, best known for Shoeless Joe, with helping shape the novel’s direction. An interview Loehr conducted with Kinsella during the writing of his first book sparked a key creative turning point.
"One of the things he was talking to me about was just asking the question, 'What if?'" Loehr recalled.
"So, I started to think about building on the characters—what if this person had a missing father in their life? And what if this person had some fears with death and people around them passing away, and how he would deal with that? And it just kind of expanded from there."
Through this imaginative exploration of loss, uncertainty, and self-discovery, Loehr hopes to offer readers not only an engaging story but also a mirror to reflect on their own experiences growing up.
The novel is currently generating interest for its thoughtful style and emotionally grounded narrative, marking an exciting new chapter in Loehr’s literary career.
The book is available now through Amazon.ca.
The synopsis from the book's cover reveals a bit more about the story and characters.
Grade nine is wrapping up for fourteen-year-old Andrew and his ‘friends’ in small-town Spring Hill. It’s 1990. Suffering from sleep issues and with a missing father from this life, Andrew’s thoughts are scattered. On the advice of one of his teachers, he begins a nighttime diary to get the distractions “onto paper and out of the mind”. He accidently discovers an amazing talent that he can tap into via a newly purchased portable stereo that seems to allow him to memorize virtually anything with ease.
As he identifies his worries and fears they begin to present themselves in his reality—namely losing someone he cares about through death. With newfound confidence and academic talent, and with the benefit of mentorship, he navigates through relationships, first love, small-town life, grief, and the difference between intelligence and wisdom. And oh yeah…he also discovers Joy.
Those of a certain age will also appreciate nostalgic 90s music and pop-culture references peppered throughout the story as well as the book’s allegoric connections. A rock-solid coming-of-age novel with charms from a time free of the internet, smartphones or AI, this work of fiction is targeted towards grades 6-9 and Young Adult readers. Join Andrew as he journeys toward the end of the school year in remarkable fashion only to have his world derailed on the way to his ultimate awakening.