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Like plenty of people in the twilight of their 20s, Melissa Plaut was unsure of where her life was headed. So, at age 29, she got her hack license and started driving a cab.

The result was more than backache and a caffeine addiction, but the book, “Hack.” In it, Plaut gives readers the inside scoop on her daily shifts, the nuts you meet driving a cab and the difficulties of using the bathroom when you’re a female taxi driver. On the eve of her Sept. 18 reading at the Park Slope Barnes and Noble, GO Brooklyn’s Katie Newingham talked with Plaut about her experiences behind the wheel, and what it took to put them all down on paper.

GO Brooklyn: What made you decide to become a cab driver?

Melissa Plaut: I officially became a cab driver on my 29th birthday. I had given up on the idea of a career; I just wasn’t in love with anything enough to make a career out of it. I had good jobs, but I wasn’t happy, and I always had the fear of having to do something for the rest of my life. When it came to becoming a cabbie, I didn’t think about it in terms of the rest of my life, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have done it.

GO: When did you decide to write about your experience on the job?

MP: I didn’t write about it until a year later when I started a blog. It all started by taking pictures on the job of the things I saw and then sending them to my friends with little captions. My friends would write back to me “more words.” Then “more words” became a blog, which became more popular and slowly got media attention, which connected me with a publisher. [The book] is like the blog, but less personal. In book form, there is more distance in my experience instead of the blog, which states that whatever happened was the night before. The writing process began with a proposal that included the first 60 pages of the book. Writing the first 60 pages was great because it mapped out the rest of the book. I sold those 60 pages and then continued writing.

GO: Do you consider yourself more of a writer or cabbie?

MP: It took me awhile to consider myself a writer because that was something I had given up on when I became a cabbie. I said to myself, “It’s too hard. I give up.” But it’s funny that being a cabbie brought me back to that.

GO: The subtitle for your book is, “How I stopped worrying about what to do with my life and started driving a yellow cab.” Did the worrying really stop?

MP: I stopped worrying about what to do with my life and started having adventures, but I totally didn’t stop worrying. Right now it’s, “What the hell am I going to do now?” and “What’s my next adventure going to be?” In the cab, it’s a different set of worries, micro-worries mostly focused on financials.

GO: In general, what was your perception of your passengers? Are some New Yorkers nicer or better tippers than others?

MP: For a while, I would discriminate against the French because they would never tip, but that was smashed one day when I was driving a group of French [passengers] to Brooklyn. When I got them to their destination, they asked for all their change back and I thought, “Gee, they really are the stereotype.” And then they gave me a $10 [tip] and I thought, “S—t.” So I’ve learned you can’t generalize people. My favorite passengers don’t puke, don’t pass out, don’t antagonize me and tip well. That’s all, not too much to ask.

GO: What tips do you have for the taxi-taking public?

MP: Don’t puke, don’t pass out and, if you want to have sex, tip well and be discreet.

©2007 Community Newspaper Group