Conference Guilt

It's that time of year again when many fiction writers are signing up for the many conferences that occurs over the summer and early fall months. I've been to some of them, but not on a consistent basis. Naturally I was at Thrillerfest when I took home the award for "Best Paperback Original" back in 2015, but skipped out on Bouchercon when I won the PWA Shamus Award for the same category (Moonlight Weeps). First off, I'd rather be writing. And second, the $5K it would cost me to attend even two conferences I use for my adventures and my extended writing stay in Italy in the fall. Still, I can't but feel a little guilty.