As for your problem with thinking it needs an = sign...This is because of the way you wrote out the function. In my opinion it is good habit to get into to NOT use the () for a function unless you are setting the return value into a variable. If you are just running a sub or function and don't expect a return value, then instead of using () around your arguments, just list them after the method call seperated by commas. For this particular instance you are going to want to set the return value into an object accordingly.
dim rsObj as recordset
rsObj = dbs.CreateQueryDef(queryname, sqlString)
See if that helps you at all.