A REDDITCH man has been picked from thousands to be writer of the week on a literary website.

Richard Warrior, 26, aka funky_seagull was chosen for ABCtales' prestigious award because of the high quality of his writing.

It was only when Mr Warrior's life hit a low point he put pen to paper.

To read Mr Warrior's work, log on to www.abctales.com

Launched a year ago, ABCtales is a website for people as keen on reading as becoming writers.

It is the brainchild of John Bird MBE, co-founder of The Big Issue. It was voted Yahoo and The Independent's 'pick of the week' at launch, is a New Statesman New Media Award winner and a Yell.com award finalist.

As well as websites, ABCtales produces a free magazine of short stories and poems from the site and from celebrity and established authors. It is available in Body Shops and Hammicks book stores.