The 22-year-old was in the court pages last year for breaching his prison release conditions.
Now, he is featuring in the newspaper for a more positive reason.
He has released a book, The Link is Broken, a self-published short story Mr Karetai will be presenting during a Puaka Matariki and Young Writers Festival event in Dunedin today.
Mr Karetai has had to get permission to leave his home - he is serving a home detention sentence for a 2013 assault conviction - to do the presentation.
The novella is a prequel to Mr Karetai's novel Behind Closed Doors, which deals with domestic abuse and is yet to be published.
Both stories were shaped by his childhood, Mr Karetai said.
''Have you ever seen that movie Once We're Warriors? It was sort of like that, with less dramatic stuff in it.''
The environment affected him, he said.
''I ended up turning to a shadier path; drinking and partying a bit more than I should have.''
Mr Karetai made a decision to change and in 2013 started writing Behind Closed Doors.
''I turned around and said 'I'm living a life of crime. I might as well change it, and do something better','' he said.
''Because I know I can. I know I can do better.''
At that point, Mr Karetai's ''life of crime'' had resulted in one conviction for burglary and one for assault.
But even after he decided to ''do something better'' with his life, Mr Karetai committed the assault for which he is now serving a home detention sentence.
Mr Karetai said he was nervous about the book launch today.
''It's quite nerve-racking, but I'm going to have to dive deep into the waters and get to the other side. Because it's the first step to being someone and making my life better.''
