I first learned about blue ghosts last year from Jennifer Frick-Ruppert, a zoologist at Brevard College in western North Carolina. I was at Brevard for a writers’ conference, and Dr. Frick-Ruppert offered to take me to see the ethereal fireflies that glow without blinking. Synchronous fireflies flash in unison — blinking together and then going dark together before blinking together again. By the time my family left for vacation in western North Carolina in early June, I’d given up on seeing the famous fireflies of the Appalachian forests. She said he could point me toward the fireflies I’d been longing to see.

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Persons: Jennifer Frick, Ruppert, . Frick, I’d, Georgann Eubanks, Tal Galton, Snakeroot Organizations: Brevard College Locations: North Carolina, Brevard, Smoky, East Tennessee