A foster Kid’s road to success
“Surviving trauma does not need to dictate how you view yourself, and it certainly does not need to dictate how you act. You get to choose.”
Available on Amazon
While I believe that everyone can benefit from the messages contained in A Foster Kid’s Road To Success, it is written directly to teens who have spent significant amount of time in foster care.
That is why I have teamed up with The Christmas Box International, an IRC 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has been serving America’s foster kids for twenty-five years: to get copies of my book into the hands of those who need it most – teens in foster care and the families and organizations who serve them.
You can help by donating funds to The Christmas Box International specifically for the purpose of purchasing copies of A Foster Kid’s Road To Success and having them distributed to teens in foster care across the United States. 90% of funds will be used to purchase and distribute copies of the book, while 10% of your donation will be used for The Christmas Box International’s general use. For donations up to $100, for every $7.50 you donate, one copy of A Foster Kid’s Road To Success will be donated to teens in foster care or the organizations who serve them. For donations of $100 or more, for every $6.67 you donate, one copy will be donated.
*Please consult with your tax advisor regarding the tax deductibility of your donations.
All donated copies of the book will contain a book plate on the inside front cover identifying your generous donation, and you can choose how you are identified on the book plates.
Donate one or more copies of A Foster Kid’s Road To Success to teens in foster care and the organizations that serve them.
Donate a pack of fifteen or more copies to teens in foster care and the organizations that serve them and get a free signed copy for yourself for every 15 copies you donate!
1-Hour Speaking Engagement plus up to 30 donated copies of the book. Additional travel expenses may be requested.
who am i?
Husband, father, friend, attorney, author
– former foster kid.
My name is Robert P.K. Mooney. My friends call me Rob.
I grew up all around Oahu, Hawaii, and throughout Utah. From age six until eighteen, I was a foster kid, changing homes twenty times between Oahu and Utah. How did a foster kid from Hawaii end up in Utah? After my siblings and I went into state custody, my mother developed cancer and died. Before she passed away, she asked the state of Hawaii to transfer her children to Utah where she had family. And so, on my eighth birthday, I moved to Utah.
As a foster kid three things helped me cope with the trauma of abuse, neglect, death of beloved family members, and the lack of stability inherent to twenty home changes.
- athletics
- music
- my imagination
In each of those, I could leave the pain and loneliness of my life and take my mind and heart to another place. I read books and watched movies to take me away. The Hardy Boys, Tolkien, Goonies, Tim Burton’s Batman, even Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and my own mind and vivid dreams – they all took me to places that kept me safe.
Eventually, I decided that more than anything, I wanted my own family. I tried to become the type of person that an amazing woman would want to be with (that’s still a work in process). In college, I got married and started a family of my own. I was determined to ensure that my wife and children never had to endure the abuse and neglect that my mother and siblings had to. So, I threw my efforts into providing for them – I got a finance degree, and then a couple of law degrees and became a very successful lawyer.
My legal career led me to courtrooms across the country and culminated with me serving as the General Counsel for one of the largest pet health and wellness companies in the United States. For the last three years of my career, I was recognized internationally as one the world’s leading intellectual property strategists. In 2019, I left the practice of law so that I could spend more time with my young family (with five children ranging in ages from eighteen to newly born) and to write books – inspirational books to help foster kids choose a successful life, and novels to entertain youth and adults.
Some of my favorite places on Earth.
Lake Powell, Utah, USA
Hobbiton, Middle Earth (aka Matamata, New Zealand)
My Writing
Rather than allow the pain of my childhood to dictate a life of loneliness and continual personal failure I chose success.
My first book, A Foster Kid’s Road To Success, enumerates six principles that I was able to discover that helped me choose a successful life, rather than allow the pain of my childhood to dictate a life of loneliness and continual personal failure. Statistically speaking, very few kids who age out of foster care go on to forge the life of deep and meaningful family relationships or the profound professional success that I have, so I think I am the right person to share this book.
However, notwithstanding my success, while I was writing this book, I found that I still had areas that I needed to work on personally to more fully overcome the trauma of my childhood, and ensure that my family relationships were not forever marred by the scars of my past. That led to further study and personal development. I’m a different person today than when I started writing A Foster Kid’s Road to Success in March of 2019. In truth, I am still on that road myself.
My hope is to share this book with teenagers in foster care throughout the country. There are more than 400,000 kids in foster care in the United States. Over 20,000 of those kids will age out of the foster care system each year. My greatest desire would be to get a copy of A Foster Kid’s Road To Success into the hands of every youth who is aging out of the system, or who is likely to age out of the system in the next several years. I speak to groups of these youth and hope to speak to more of them across the country to share my message of hope and help spread the power to choose a life of success.
My next book, Runar Kemp and the Secret War, is a young adult urban fantasy novel. It is about a multi-racial, lifelong teenage foster kid named Rune who one day finds himself with unique supernatural powers and learns that he has been unwittingly drafted into a millennia-old war between the forces of Light and of Dark. Rune learns that he is one of dozens of champions throughout the world destined to face off in an inevitable hand-to-hand melee to the death against his “Other” – a champion for the Dark blessed with similar supernatural abilities.
Can Rune learn to harness the hero within before his Other – an older, stronger, more experienced and vicious fighter, a brutal serial killer known only as “the Bear” – finds him? Will the abandonment, abuse, and trauma of his childhood lead Rune to turn away from the Light, and become a killer like the beast hunting him? And when the Bear inevitably finds him – will Rune be able to withstand the sheer brutality and hatred that his Other has used to murder countless others?
Contact Me
I’d love to hear from you. You can use this form to get in touch with me for speaking requests, book orders or just to say HI!
-Rob