Noticing Newbies

Hi there. I'll go ahead and say good evening, since where I am it's about five thirty by now. I went to a great books college and love letters. Of late, I have decided to try to develop my amateur visual art skills into something useful, and I've gone back to school online to learn the profession of drafting (CAD).
Most of the great writing I've read has been in the philosophical realm. I was a Humanities major who admired Plato, Locke, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Newton, the drafters of the US Constitution and Winston Churchill.
Right now I'm reading Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
My main interest is in history, and I want to try to get creative and write some period pieces. I keep looking around for the grown up version of Johnny Tremain, but I haven't found it yet...any suggestions?
I joined the Writers and Poets Club at my Trade School, and I'm trying to write a blog there in which I will restrict myself to American historical documents, (such as Lincoln-Douglass and constitutional court decisions.) That's a challenge, but with fiction I'm going to have to work even harder.
I wonder how to blend history with my life without getting too sci-fi and Jesse Ventura like, without using the same time travel/Back to the Future motif as its originators who have already done it so well.
So far I have only added one piece to my introductory free membership portfolio. I'll fill that out and see the site, see who I meet and see where it goes from there.
I hope you have a good and productive evening.