How is Bland Simpson’s upcoming book, “Little Rivers and Waterway Tales: A Carolinian’s Eastern Streams,” helping me write my book about local eateries near interstate highways?

I will tell you in a minute. But first, a few words about the author and his book, which comes out next month. The multi-talented Simpson is a professor of writing at UNC-Chapel Hill, a long-time performer and songwriter for the Red Clay Ramblers, and a prolific author of fiction, coastal memoirs, and what he calls “nonfiction novels.”

In earlier work, he combined his memories and storytelling gifts with the experience and knowledge of others to guide his readers toward a greater understanding and appreciation of the parts of North Carolina where the land meets the sea.

In his new book, he celebrates inland waterways near the coast. Referring to his wife Ann, whose lovely photographs illustrate the new book, he writes, “The lifelong object of our affection has been the water of our coast and coastal plain, and the people who love it, love floating it, fishing it, hunting on it, studying its birds and plants, or for any other reason at all simply seeking out this world.”

Simpson continues, “We have sought to find many of those rills, prongs, branches, right where they have come to be called rivers, and, in seeking them out, to hear their voices, their tales, whether of glory or woe, of works well wrought or of loss unavoidable.”

Beginning with the his hometown river, Elizabeth City’s Pasquotank, he combines personal memories of Hurricane Hazel and learning to sail as a boy with Civil War naval action and his and Ann’s more recent trips on the nearby waters.

With similar storytelling, he takes us inland and south to and through waterways like the Scuppernong, Alligator, Contentnea, Trent, White Oak, Sweetheart and Black, pausing at each and like an engaging river guide, regaling readers with history, science and personal stories, so that at the end, even if we forget some of the details, we will never forget how much we enjoyed the trip with him.

So, how does “Little Rivers” intersect with my book about eateries near interstates? Near the end of his trip south toward Wilmington, he writes, “The landing and canoe-rental spot for one fine, dark, tributary of the Northeast Cape Fear, east of Burgaw and not too far north of Wilmington, bore the name Holland’s Shelter Creek Restaurant, Boats & Cabins.”

That restaurant is going in my book because it is near I-40, is a gathering place for locals and, I write, provides “generous servings of scallops, catfish, shrimp and oysters. And if you want to try frog legs, they fry them up for you. Holland’s was something of a secret pleasure for regulars until the Raleigh News & Observer featured it in its ‘Best Kept Secrets’ series in 2015.”

For something to do after eating, I will suggest visitors spend some time watching Shelter Creek flow toward the Northeast Cape Fear or follow the Simpsons’ lead and spend a few minutes taking a canoe into the waters.

Whether you stop at Holland’s for the catfish and frog legs, as I suggest, or to explore the quiet, dark waters of Shelter Creek, or to do both, or even if you just enjoy Shelter Creek through reading, your mini-adventure will be a rich one.

But don’t be sure you can read “Little Rivers” and resist Simpson’s pull toward the waters he describes. UNC-Wilmington’s Phillip Gerard says the book is “a treasure of gorgeous prose and vivid descriptions that celebrate a glorious and essential waterscape. It made me want to launch my kayak on the north branch of Whiskey Creek and begin my own adventure.”

D.G. Martin hosts “North Carolina Bookwatch,” which airs Sundays at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV.

D.G. Martin

Contributing Columnist