Danica Nava: On Universal Themes of Humor and Romance

Danica Nava is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and works as an executive assistant in Silicon Valley. She graduated with an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business. When she is not chasing her one-year-old daughter around the house, she is dreaming up more silly, sexy stories. Follow her on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

In this interview, Danica discusses the fever-dream experience of writing her debut romantic comedy, The Truth According to Ember, her hope for readers, and more!

Name: Danica Nava
Literary agent: Laura Bradford
Book title: The Truth According to Ember
Publisher: Berkley, Penguin Random House
Release date: August 6, 2024
Genre/category: Romance / Rom-Com
Elevator pitch: Ember (Chickasaw) can’t catch a break, and after many job rejections she decides to get creative and lie on her resume and check the ethnicity box on application as “Caucasian” to land her dream accounting job. It works and she meets her dream man, IT guy, Danuwoa (Cherokee). There is a no-dating policy, and she has to add yet another lie to the ever-growing list to keep her job and newfound financial freedom.

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I love romantic comedies with all my heart, and I always wondered why there were no rom-com books or movies where the heroine identified the way I do. I am a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. So, I set out to write one. My years working in corporate America shaped Ember’s story of self-discovery and love.

Ember’s story was originally a screenplay, but it was too big for 90-page feature. There was so much to explore, and I realized I was starting the story too late. So, I sat down on May 1, 2022, and I wrote the first chapter of the novel. It took six months to write and revise to begin querying in November 2022. I got agented in December 2022, and we went on submission toward the end of January 2023. Then it sold in March of 2022. My fabulous editor, Angela, really helped me refine the story and completely rewrite the ending and add an additional 10,000 words. The first half of the book did not really change that much and the story from idea to publication, at its heart is very much the same. Angela saw exactly what I was trying to do and helped me execute it.

Well, I could not keep my original title, which knowing what I know now was not the right title for it. I was still thinking about the story as a movie and tried to come up with a movie title, but The Truth According to Ember is so much more specific and goes with the voice the character. We brainstormed for weeks and came up with so many titles going back and forth with marketing until we landed on the title we have now. I had no idea how the process of titling books works. It was eye opening.

This book poured out of me during a season of my life that was extremely chaotic. I did not get much sleep with a newborn, night school, and drafting the novel in whatever free moment I could steal. The process felt almost like a fever dream. Chapter 4 surprised me. I knew I needed Ember to go back to the bowling alley, but I wasn’t sure why, and then the Little Big Horns popped up and stole the show, and it all made sense. I am most proud of that chapter and from my first draft to publication it did not change at all.

I hope readers fall in love with this story, Oklahoma, and the diverse cast of Native characters. But more than that, I hope readers can just love the story for what it is—not to check a diversity quota, but because this story is universally funny and romantic, and those are themes that people in all walks of life can relate to. I hope readers can see the beauty in community as a healing balm when capitalism is too much to bear.

Believe in yourself and show up for yourself. Only you can tell your stories and you cannot edit a blank page—keep going!