  After an optical peak, a classical or recurrent nova settles into a brief
(days to years) period of quasi-stable thermonuclear burning in a compact
configuration nearly at the white dwarf (WD) radius. During this time, the
underlying WD becomes visible as a strong emitter of supersoft X-rays.
Observations during this phase have revealed oscillations in the X-ray emission
with periods on the order of tens of seconds. A proposed explanation for the
source of these oscillations are internal gravity waves excited by nuclear
reactions at the base of the hydrogen-burning layer. In this work, we present
the first models exhibiting unstable surface $g$-modes with periods similar to
oscillation periods found in galactic novae. However, when comparing mode
periods of our models to the observed oscillations of several novae, we find
that the modes which are excited have periods shorter than that observed.
