Writer Nelson Aspen never understood why James Cameron created star-crossed lovers Jack and Rose for 1997’s “Titanic.” “There were so many real, interesting people aboard,” he said.

One of them was named Milton Long, who died when the so-called unsinkable ship went down during its 1912 maiden voyage from England’s Southampton to New York.

Not much is known about the Massachusetts man, but details of his connection to another passenger on his last night alive fascinated Aspen, an entertainment reporter and cabaret performer who made Long the lead character in his new book, “Kindred Spirits: A Titanic Tale.”

Aspen, whose in-laws live in Baltimore, is scheduled to appear at Little Italy’s Cafe Gia Ristorante this Sunday to talk about the book and all things Titanic. The restaurant has its own connection to another famous shipwreck: Giovanna Acquia Blatterman, its founder, came to the U.S. from Sicily in 1953 on the Andrea Doria, which collided with a Swedish vessel in 1956.

“Kindred Spirits” follows a modern young gay New Yorker named Preston who starts to feel a connection to Long — despite the fact that he died more than a century earlier. The two begin to live as one person, with Long, who in the novel is also gay, experiencing more freedom to be himself in the current era.

“It’s two souls in one body, and he helps Milton express himself. It’s kind of fun, such a positive thing," Aspen said.

I must mention here that there is evidence of gay passengers on the Titanic, along with some speculation among enthusiasts whether the real-life, unmarried Long, whose literal occupation was listed as “man of leisure,” was also gay. Some believe his marital status and the fact that he spent his last night hanging out with a single guy named John “Jack” Thayer III could suggest that he was, while others say it’s unfair to assume.

Aspen said the moving note that Thayer III wrote to Long’s parents after the shipwreck was significant. “You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to know it’s a love letter,” he said. “He wrote that he [Long] died nobly and not alone. He enclosed a photograph and wrote, ‘I thought you would like to see who was with your son when he died.’”

Aspen’s interest in portraying that relationship is also personal. The Preston character in the book is a stand-in for Aspen, he told me, because “I believe I am the reincarnated Milton.”

Well, then! It’s an intriguing proposition: In the book, Long gets to experience a freer life through Preston’s eyes and imagines what could have been.

“What I have been able to find out about him [Long] was that he led an unfulfilled life, an unhappy fellow,” Aspen said. “I have never been repressed, but an unmarried 29-year-old man would have been considered repressed in the Edwardian world. I’m carrying the baton for him.”

He knows this might sound off, but it doesn’t deter him. “I did a BBC Radio interview when I was in Belfast, and the guy was putting on his shock jock hat,” Aspen said. “He wanted to argue with me, and that’s fine. He would not believe in reincarnation. ‘If it hasn’t happened to me.’”

I’m an open-minded sort who refuses to tell anyone what’s going on with their soul, reincarnated or otherwise, so I’ll take Aspen at his word. I was more fascinated with his connection to the Titanic, which he said is the ”third-most -recognizable word after ‘God’ and ‘Coca-Cola.’"

As a kid growing up outside of Philadelphia, Aspen was drawn to maritime disasters.

“I saw ‘The Poseidon Adventure” and it profoundly changed my life,” he said. But in 1985, “once they found the wreck, the world’s attention turned to Titanic.”

Since then he has led tours related to history’s most famous shipwreck, started a podcast, written a book and a Titanic-themed cabaret show. Next year he’s leading a tour in Ireland that features Belfast, where the ship was built.

“At the age of 62, having a very successful career, I’m entering my Titanic time, my third act.”

The world’s love of Titanic is also never-ending. Earlier this year, there were two separate documentaries about the tragic implosion of the OceanGate Titan submersible, which was destroyed during an attempt to visit the shipwreck.

“It’s a curious thing, Titanic tourism,” Aspen said. “You’re going down to a gravesite. I don’t know if it’s an adrenaline thing, or a ‘showing you’re cool’ thing. But Titanic, 100 years later, is still killing people.”

So what is it about that one ship that so lives in people’s imaginations? Aspen said it’s a combination of things, like marking the end of the Edwardian era and taking down with it “the richest people in the world. No one is immune to death. There’s the realization that we had not mastered technology, even though they thought nothing bad could happen.”

In the end, Titanic brought a lot of sadness and death, including to Long. But as Aspen sees it, “Kindred Spirits” is a way to find something positive. “I wanted to give him at least a happy eternal ending,” he said.