Richard Wright believes that at some point in time, there will be another person whose face looks a lot like yours.

In his case, he shared a womb with his doppelganger, a twin brother. But Wright believes there may still be someone out there, in either the past or the present, who shares his likeness.Wright has taken that theory, and applied it to his breakout novel, "Southside of Heaven," a historical romance that tells the story of a New York City cop who searches for his identity, and finds it in the past."It's been my perception that our faces come back," says Wright. "Some people believe that we all have a twin, which I am, and that even with no bloodline, someone, somewhere, sometime, has or has had our face."Wright, who is originally from Staten Island, has lived in Lehighton for the past 12 years. He retired from the New York Police Department in 1993 after 20 years. He and his wife, Carol, then moved to Naples, Florida, where they lived for nine years.In Florida, he owned and operated an antiquarian bookstore for four years, which featured roughly 60,000 books. Although he's pared down to about 12,000 books, he continues to sell online and through Heritage Auction House."I've been collecting books for 40 years," says Wright. "I'm not really an e-book person."He worked at Giant in Lehighton for 10 years, retiring recently to spend more time writing. He continues to work at New England Motor Freight.Wright has three sons, Loren in South Carolina, John in Las Vegas and Roger in New York. His daughter, Jennifer, lives in Maryland. He has two grandchildren, Autumn and Madeline, both in South Carolina.Wright's interest in old books developed from his running in marathons."I would get old newspaper clippings. I researched running articles, and that got me into antique books. I got hooked on old books. I also spent a lot of time in graveyards and cemeteries."From his research on running, Wright began writing articles for the Staten Island Running News. His column, called "Out of the Past," focused on historical facts on running.He was also a contributor to the Staten Island Advance."I'm into old, obscure, unusual facts," he says.That interest developed further, and led him to learn more about the Civil War, which is key in "Southside of Heaven."Wright's book opens in the 1970s when 19-year-old Johnny Marra follows his father's footsteps and becomes a New York City police officer.According to the book jacket, "As he makes a living chasing bad guys amid the concrete and steel of an urban society, Johnny has no idea his true identity has been chasing him all the way from a South Carolina town during the Civil War."Fifteen-year-old Josh Butler wants nothing more than to be a Confederate soldier. Determined to do the right thing, Josh leaves his idyllic life behind and journeys into a brutal war where he soon questions everything he has ever known."Wright weaves historically accurate information into the book, including an appearance by Louisa May Alcott, who volunteered at a Washington, D.C., hospital. He then takes those facts and uses them to help tell his story.The plot moves back and forth from the 1970s to the 1860s, until the past meets the present.Wright is giving no clues."If you want to know what happens, you'll have to read the book."Wright says he wrote "Southside of Heaven" over a period of about seven months, working approximately five hours a day. Then the book sat for seven years.He revised it, adding more of the historical detail from his research that he thought would make the story even more interesting.Wright says he writes longhand. Then his wife types what he's written. She also does some of the editing.The title, he says, was chosen because the word "southside" reminds him of bad things, while "heaven," of course, reminds him of good things."The bad is the fighting in the Civil War; people dying around you. The good things? You'll find out at the end."The cover design follows a similar concept, and depicts a tree split in half. The side in full leaf represents the present, while the barren branches tell the story of the past."Southside of Heaven" was released last month in hardcover, paperback and e-book.It is self-published through iUniverse, an affiliate of Penquin Random House, and is currently available at Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.Wright has a two-book deal with iUniverse. A second book, "Autumn Rain," a romance, is due out next summer.