Cal Orey, the local health and pets writer, is not just an author. A native of California, this sensitive animal lover recalls that when she was 12, she sat on the porch steps of her house in San Jose, with her Dalmatian, Casey. It finally hit home. She was awestruck at the National Geographic magazine pages of snow-covered ground with gigantic cracks. Anchorage and other Alaskan cities were devastated by the great Alaskan earthquake of March 27, 1964.

"And then, I put the pieces together. I, too, was living on shaky ground - near the San Andreas fault, which runs almost the entire length of the Golden state. My life no longer seemed like the perfect Father Knows Best safe haven of the 1950s. And things changed," she said.

That was 40 years ago, and today she can still find herself pondering deadly fault lines and many of the earthquakes that she personally survived. Like Orey and other people, you're likely to be both fascinated and freaked out by the power of earthquakes.

"At 17," she said, "I lived an hour's drive from the Pacific Ocean. Scientists also claimed that a quake was overdue on the Hayward fault, 30 miles from our house. Since I was a teenager with an overactive imagination, my fear of tremors manifested into an earthquake phobia. I shared this fear factor with my wood shop teacher in high school. He listened. He laughed. He tagged me 'Earthquake Annie.' But his joking attitude didn't stop my serious anxieties and interest in the worldwide phenomenon."

In the summer of 2004, Orey sat outdoors in the sunshine on the deck of her cabin in South Lake Tahoe, suffering from writer's boredom. "I had just sold my previously published article, 'What Kitty Knows: ESP, superior senses, and feline intuition,' to the Reno-based PetFolio magazine. I covered the four-legged potential earthquake predictors. Then, it hit me. I thought of retired geologist Jim Berkland. His quake prediction theories, such as counting lost cat and dog ads in newspapers, always intrigued me."

One year later, Orey had written her latest book, "The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes: Jim Berkland, Maverick Geologist - How His Quake Warnings Can Save Lives" (Sentient Publications, January 2006). The author knew her late pets sensed the Oct. 17, 1989, "World Series Quake," a 7.1 monster that Berkland predicted and coined. But through her research for the book, she has discovered that she, too, can sense imminent earthquakes. She is one of countless "earthquake sensitives" - humans who have shown an ability to detect precursors that signal an upcoming quake.

In "The Man Who Predicts Earthquakes," written in a warm and witty first-person narrative, Orey discusses how her own dreams, visions, ear tones, and tuning into her current pets - seismically sensitive cat, Kerouac, and dog, Simon - have led to sensing, predicting (on Berkland's Web site www.syzygyjob.com), and getting accurate earthquake "hits" in both Northern and Southern California, Lake Tahoe, and even Japan.

Each month, Orey follows the "shaky-ground specialist's earthquake prediction methods" and puts her own uncanny sixth sense to work. Many of Berkland's theories - based on tides, moons, strange animal behavior, and magnetic field changes - were factors in the great Indian Ocean quake-tsunami disaster on Dec. 26, 2004.

To find out more about earthquake prediction, you can meet Orey and the man who predicts earthquakes himself at a signing and discussion of her book on Saturday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. at Neighbors Bookstore, 4000 Lake Tahoe Blvd., Suite 23, in the Village Center.

Orey and Berkland will also discuss the book during a live interview at Neighbors Bookstore starting at noon Friday, Jan. 20, on KTHO AM 590 radio.

Cal Orey can be contacted at www.calorey.com.