By Serenity Clark
At 6 p.m. on Sept. 25 in the Buddy Green Room in the McMahon Centennial Complex (MCC), Communications, English and Foreign Languages (CEFL) Associate Professor and Student Media Advisor David Bublitz held a public reading for his debut children’s book, “The Depend-Ant.”
Bublitz has been writing since childhood, from poetry to comics, his creative works heavily inspired by growing up in a military household. Bublitz’s father has been to combat twice, sent overseas for Operation Desert Storm when Bublitz was just a child (1990), and Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003) when he was a bit older and more aware.
This experience birthed his first published work “Combat Pay”, a collection of poems released in 2020, and inspired his current project, another collection titled Sight Lines.
Being the eldest son in a military household taught Bublitz that he was “not a boy, but a man in training.” Upon his father’s first deployment, a young Bublitz was told that he would be in charge in his father’s absence, and Bublitz understood that should anything happen to his father, he would have no choice but to step into the role of head of household.
The memory of the intense pressure young Bublitz felt in the time of his father’s deployment is what inspired his newest publication, “The Depend-Ant.”
“The Depend-Ant” is a fully illustrated children’s book designed to present heavy topics such as war, military service and the potential death of a loved one to kids, in a way that their brains can comprehend.
“I didn’t have the language for what I was feeling at the time,” Bublitz said. “But now I think what I struggled most with was what his possible death could mean, the ripple effect it would have on my family and on me, probably for the rest of our lives.”
Bublitz’s mother helped him out in those early years: she took him to a public library and found a children’s book that talked about similar issues her son was dealing with. This allowed her to open up a conversation and provide Bublitz with the language to understand and cope with those feelings and fears.
Bublitz knows how difficult it can be for service members to talk about their deployment, (if they talk about it at all); therefore, the message of this book is not by any means limited to children.
“I want The Depend-Ant to be a continuation of and an invitation to that dialogue,” Bublitz said.
Heavily inspired by personal experience, “The Depend-Ant” is loaded with first-hand accounts and word-for-word advice from both of Bublitz’s parents. The novel follows a young ant named Lor, who’s soldier-ant Auntie Cathay has gone off to combat. In her absence, Lor is riddled with anxiety as she questions where her Aunt has gone, if and when she will ever return home.
Bublitz does a wonderful job capturing the seriousness and confusion that comes with being an Army dependent. A loved one vanishing to the other side of the earth for reasons a child cannot comprehend, for an amount of time a child cannot understand, doing things, experiencing situations that a child has no concept of, can be scary.
The book does not hold back in its honesty: Auntie Cathay is changed when she returns, reserved and severely injured. Lor watches Cathay isolate herself and worries that it is her fault her Aunt is not improving.
The heart of the story lies in Auntie Cathay opening up to tell Lor the truth; in this, Lor is able to feel at ease knowing she’s not at fault and Cathay has a little weight off her chest. Great care is taken in the way the characters converse with one another, in order to convey a huge but specific message.
When the idea struck Bublitz last Spring, he stopped his work on “Sight Lines” to dedicate three straight days drafting this book. He wrote dialogue, doodled armies of ants and plotted the book’s creation. While not his first illustrated work, it is Bublitz’s first published illustrated work. Weeks of dedicated, heartfelt work went into making “The Depend-Ant” a reality.
It is thanks to Amanda Purser at Queensbriar Press that “The Depend-Ant” is now published and available to buy on Amazon. After writing her own series of crime fiction novels (“Cost of Closure” and “Cost of Progress”) and wanting a publication route, she felt secure in, Purser founded her independent publishing company, Queensbriar Press.
Bublitz’s book and others published by Queensbriar Press can be found on their website, www.queensbriarpress.com.
Bublitz also sells both of his published works directly, at readings and local author events. Purser and Bublitz will be featured at the 4th Annual Author Festival, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Lawton Farmer’s Market.