Welcome to the High Perch.
Creativity demands resilience, adaptation, and vision, qualities vultures embody better than most.

Today I’m speaking with Tanja Pajevic, writer, memoir coach, and guide for those called to put their lives on the page. From honoring grief to reclaiming voice, she shows how story isn’t just about what happened, but about the power of shaping meaning, healing, and legacy.

Barbara:

Tanja, welcome. Can you begin by giving us a little background about you and what you’re creating?

Tanja:

I’m a writer and memoir book coach, and I love helping women reclaim their stories. That came through my own years of writing and putting my life on the page. I’ve written multiple memoirs (it’s my favorite genre) and I’m currently working on one about transmuting the intergenerational trauma of my Serbian lineage.

Barbara:

Let’s start with something playful. What’s something you never expected to get away with?

Tanja:

That’s such a great question! I tend to come at things from a slightly different angle. A lot of my projects start as an experiment to see if I can make them work. “What if I pull this together into a book? What if I shape it into something for my community?” So in a way, most of what I do is about exploration and curiosity. Maybe everything I do is me seeing what I can get away with.

Barbara:

If your creative process had a spirit creature, what would it be?

Tanja:

A mountain lion. I live in Colorado near the foothills, and while we don’t often see them, they’re always there. I think of creativity, or the muse, the same way. She’s always around, even when you don’t see her. The more you show up, the more you catch a glimpse. It’s a relationship, even when we’re not fully aware of it.

Barbara:

It’s like a sensed presence rather than something you can always see.

Tanja:

Exactly.

Barbara:

What’s a piece of advice you love ignoring?

Tanja:

For me it comes down to choosing intuition over advice. It’s easy to get lost in what others say you should do, so I always try to check in: does this actually feel right for me? Is it right for my vision? I try to follow what feels aligned rather than what’s expected.

Barbara:

That theme has shown up with other guests too, trusting your own wisdom rather than best practices.

Tanja:

Yes. I think that comes with age and experience. When we’re younger, there’s so much advice coming at us about how we should do things. With time, we start to let go of all that and trust our own sense of what’s right.

Barbara:

Tell me about a time when you thought a project was a disaster but it turned into something great.

Tanja:

My first book was a novel I wrote for my MFA thesis. I had no idea what I was doing and no real guidance, it was messy and difficult to piece together. But that process sent me on a path of figuring out how to write a full-length manuscript. It was a challenge that became a gift, because those are the skills I still use today. I learned I’m a long-form writer, not a short-story writer, and that experience gave me clarity.

Barbara:

Did you end up publishing it?

Tanja:

No, it’s still on a computer somewhere! I had some interest, but I realized it wasn’t what I wanted to pursue. My MFA was in fiction, but memoir has always been my true love. That early project helped me move toward writing more transparently about my own life, more aligned, more soul-driven work.

I love that your project highlights what’s left over, those scraps that nourish the next thing. So much of what we create becomes compost for what comes next.

Barbara:

It provides a great deal of clarity.

Tanja:

Exactly.

Barbara:

What’s something you’ve let die, in a good way, to make space for something better?

Tanja:

Previous books. That early novel, and an earlier version of one of my memoirs. I’ve written five books, published two, and now I’m working on a sixth. Letting go of the ones that didn’t fit has helped illuminate the path to where I am now.

Barbara:

What’s the weirdest inspiration you’ve ever pulled into your work?

Tanja:

Even though I’m mostly a long-form writer, I love poetry. In grad school, I experimented with bringing in different forms of art, music, collage, “found” poems. It’s like creating a collage from scraps of magazines or printed words. I love juxtaposing unexpected pieces and seeing how they speak to each other.

Barbara:

That sounds so fun, now I want to go try it.

Tanja:

You should! It’s such a playful, freeing way to create.

Barbara:

If you could scavenge a skill or talent from anyone, what would you grab?

Tanja:

Singing. I love it, but it’s not my gift.

Barbara:

It’s funny, singing is such a human thing. We’re all born able to do it, but somewhere along the way, we decided we have to be good at it to sing. Before the digital era, people would gather and sing around a piano at night, and surely not everyone was great! Maybe singing is still waiting out there for you.

Tanja:

Maybe! I love that image, a circle of people singing together. It’s such community.

Barbara:

Where in your life do you feel most creative outside of work?

Tanja:

Dancing. I love to dance, it’s my happy place. I’ve danced in different forms all my life. It’s such a beautiful counterpart to sitting at a desk writing. There’s something deeply somatic and freeing about it.

Barbara:

If you could leave a feather, a small, messy gift, for future creators, what would it be?

Tanja:

Curiosity. All art starts with curiosity, wondering, what if? It’s also a great antidote to the inner critic. When that voice says, “This is terrible,” curiosity helps you shift into, “What if I try this?” or “What happens if I follow that thread?”

Barbara:

What’s something delightfully unhinged about your creative process that you hope never changes?

Tanja:

Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist! My office wall is covered with notes, charts, and Post-its for the book I’m working on. I move pieces around to find the structure. It’s chaotic but so much fun, especially when you have the time and space to sink into it deeply.

Barbara:

I’m picturing strings and push pins connecting ideas, pure creative crime board energy.

Tanja:

Exactly!

Barbara:

Anything else you’d like people to know before we wrap up?

Tanja:

Because I write memoir, I often work with challenging material, grief, trauma, and transformation. I think a lot about safety and self-care.

When we write from those tender places, we have to create safe containers and care for ourselves, so we don’t inadvertently re-traumatize or shut down. It’s part of making the process sustainable. I’m passionate about helping women bring their stories into the world without burning out in the process.

Creation isn’t clean. It’s a glorious scavenger hunt, and today, Tanja Pajevic reminded us that the scraps of our lives, even the hardest ones, can become nourishment for ourselves and others.

Whether we write for healing, transformation, or legacy, our stories, raw, messy, luminous, are what keep the nest alive.

Stay sharp. Stay weird. Keep circling.
Until next time, I’m Barbara Evans, Brand Vulture, and this has been The Vulture Chronicles.

PS
Want to learn more about Tanja Pajevic and her work?

Tanja is a memoir coach and award-winning author of The Secret Life of Grief: A Memoir. Through her coaching, courses, and community, she helps women transform lived experience into story, reclaiming voice, power, and meaning on the page.

Visit tanjapajevic.com to explore her offerings and connect.